rdingly Louis XIV. instructed his ambassador to pay
special attention to Lady Castlemaine, who had become a Roman Catholic
in 1663.

In August 1670 she was created countess of Southampton and duchess of
Cleveland, with remainder to her first and third sons, Charles and
George Palmer, the king at this time not admitting the paternity of her
second son Henry; and she also received many valuable gifts from
Charles. An annual income of L4700 from the post office was settled upon
her, and also other sums chargeable upon the revenue from the customs
and the excise, whilst she obtained a large amount of money from seekers
after office, and in other ways. Nevertheless her extravagance and her
losses at gaming were so enormous that she was unable to keep up her
London residence, Cleveland House, St James's, and was obliged to sell
the contents of her residence at Cheam. About 1670 her influence over
Charles began to decline. She consoled herself meanwhile with lovers of
a less exalted station in life, among them John Churchill, afterwards
duke of Marlborough, and William Wycherley; by 1674 she had been
entirely supplanted at court by Louise de Keroualle, duchess of
Portsmouth. Soon afterwards the duchess of Cleveland went to reside in
Paris, where she formed an intrigue with the English ambassador, Ralph
Montagu, afterwards duke of Montagu (d. 1709), who lost his position
through some revelations which she made to the king. She returned to
England just before Charles's death in 1685. In July 1705 her husband,
the earl of Castlemaine, whom she had left in 1662, died; and in the
same year the duchess was married to Robert (Beau) Feilding (d. 1712), a
union which was declared void in 1707, as Feilding had a wife living.
She died at Chiswick on the 5th of October 1709.

Bishop Burnet describes her as "a woman of great beauty, but most
enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious, ever uneasy to
the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she
pretended she was jealous of him." Dryden addressed Lady Castlemaine in
his fourth poetical _Epistle_ in terms of great adulation, and Wycherley
dedicated to her his first play, _Love in a Wood_. Her portrait was
frequently painted by Sir Peter Lely and others, and many of these
portraits are now found in various public and private collections. By
Charles II. she had three sons and either one or two daughters. She had
also in 1686 a son by the actor Cardonnell