Barbara FitzRoy

Lady Barbara FitzRoy (16 July 1672 – 6 May 1737), was the sixth and youngest child of Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, a mistress of Charles II of England. Charles never publicly acknowledged her as his child, as he was probably not the father. She became a Benedictine nun, known as Benedite. Early life Barbara was born at Cleveland House in St Martin in the Fields, London, England on 16 July 1672. Around the time she was born, Louise de Kérouaille was replacing her mother as the king's primary mistress. Although her mother insisted she was a daughter of the king, Barbara was probably fathered either by 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. Boyer in his "Annals", published in the lifetime of the Duke of Marlborough says of Barbara: