On this day, Louis XIV awards a pension to a loyal agent:
“The King gave a pension of 4,000 écus to Madame la Duchesse de Portsmouth.”
Commentary:
The Duchess of Portsmouth has an English title, but she is not an Englishwoman. This new pension is no doubt welcome since the Glorious Revolution has put an end to her former English pension.
Pictured: Louise de Kérouraille (1649 -1734), Duchess of Portsmouth and Duchesse d’Aubigny, mistress of Charles II of England, in her youth. Credit — By Peter Lely - scan by User:Manfred Heyde, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2626067
Portsmouth was born Louise de Kérouaille in Brittany. Clever and beautiful, she was sent to England as the Sun King’s agent to seduce Charles II and influence him in favour of France and Catholicism. She gave Charles a son, also called Charles, Duke of Richmond, which makes her the ancestress of all the subsequent Dukes of Richmond down to this day. Meanwhile, she had also been created Duchesse d’Aubigny in her homeland. Few women in England or France have held dukedoms in their own right; Louise de Kérouaille is surely the only woman ever to hold one in both countries, even if only for life.
The translation from the French is my own. Images that are not my own are in the public domain; I only explicitly credit them when the uploader has made it a condition of sharing his/her work via Wikimedia Commons. Words in italics in the body of the post or bold italics in verbatim translations and image captions are in the Glossary; the royal family and other Bourbons are in the Who’s Who guides; information about the sources is in the Bibliography; all of these are in the Resources section and freely available to paid subscribers and Grandes Entrées. If you have questions, please ask in the comments.
When it was a career path!
What a fascinating woman! That’s really committing to the assignment.