Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/301

 CLEVELAND 281 end, and she was propitiated for her loss ot the Royal favour, and even induced to settle for a time in France, by being; created on 3 Aug. 1670 (^) BARONESS NONSUCH, Surrey, COUNTESS OF SOUTHAMPTON and DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND, for life, with rem. of these dignities to her eldest son, Charles Palmer, styled Lord Limerick,('') and the heirs male of his body, with rem. to George Palmer, her second [jzV, but should be third] son(') in hke manner. Ranger of Bushy Park 1677. She also secured various grants of lands, and pensions for herself and her bastards. ('^) On 25 Nov. 1705, in her 65th year, four months after the death of her lawful earliest lovers was Lord Chesterfield, who is generally considered to have been the father of her first child (Anne, Countess of Sussex), whose paternity was (2) claimed by (the husband of the child's mother) the legal father, and (3) was acknowledged by the King in a Royal warrant of 1673. The insatiable Countess carried on intrigues (at the same time as with the King) with Hart and Goodman, the actors, with Jacob Hall, the rope dancer, with " the invincible " Henry Jermyn, with Churchill (afterwards the great Duke), with Wycherley, the dramatist, ^c. In 1670, in France, the Chevalier de Chatillon, and Ralph Montagu (afterwards Duke of Montagu), the English Ambassador, were among those whom she thus favoured. " If she were as beautiful as Helen, she had as many lovers as Messalina," says Jesse, in his Court of the Stuarts (vol. iv). In the magnificent picture of her by Lely, as Minerva, " the face is perfectly beautiful," but her beauty " was of that splendid and commanding character that dazzles, rather than interests." See Jameson's Court Beauties of Charles II. She is described (when young) by Reresby as " the finest woman of her age." (^) A docquet of the signed bill for the creation of this dignity [as well as one for the creations of the Dukedoms ofSouthampton and Grafton (both in 1675) to two of her sons] is in the Signet Books, but no enrolment of any of these patents appears to have been made. For a list of Royal Bastards, see vol. vi. Appendix F. (^) In the signed bill for this patent, the title of " Earl of Southampton" is given to him during her lifetime, and the precedency of the children of a Duke to all her issue. These two results would have been the natural consequence of such her creation if her children had been legitimate. {'^) Henry, the second son (who was thus passed over) was cr. Earl of Euston, isfc, in 1672, and Duke of Grafton in 1675, having, in the former year, m. the heiress (expectant) of the estate of Euston, who became suo Jure, on her father's death. Countess of Arlington. {^) "They have signed and sealed ;ri0,000 a year more to the Duchess of Cleveland, who has likewise near ^Ti 0,000 a year more out of the new farm of the County excise of beer and ale; ^^5,000 a year out of the Post Office, and, they say, the reversion of all the King's leases, the reversion of all places in the Custom House, the Green Wax, and, indeed, what not! All promotions, spiritual and temporal, pass under her cognizance." (Andrew Marvel, JForks, vol. ii, p. 75). The King gave her all his rich presents at Christmas one year ; on another he paid her debts of ;/^30,000, ^c. Berkshire House (formerly the property of the Howards, Earls of Berkshire) was purchased for her by the King in 1668; its name, which was altered to Cleveland House, still survives in Cleveland Court and Cleveland Row ; but the site of it is mostly occupied by Bridgwater House, built 1847-50. Her immense fortune was principally squandered at the gaming table, where she is said (by Pepys, in 1668) to have played ^1,000 and ^^1,500 at a cast, to have won j^i 5,000 in one night, and to have lost ^Ta 5,000 in another. 36