Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth
| Louise de Kérouaille | |
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| Duchess of Portsmouth | |
The Duchess of Portsmouth by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1671
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Full name
Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille
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| Father | Guillaume de Kérouaille |
| Mother | Marie de Ploeuc de Timeur |
| Born | 6 September 1649 |
| Died | 14 November 1734 (aged 85) Paris, France |
| Buried | Church of the Carmelite Convent |
Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth (6 September 1649 – 14 November 1734) was a mistress of Charles II of England. Through her son by Charles II, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, she is ancestress of both wives of Prince Charles: Diana, Princess of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Louise was the daughter of Guillaume de Penancoët, Seigneur de Kérouaille (d. 1690) and his wife (married on 27 February 1645) Marie de Ploeuc de Timeur (d. January 1709), paternal granddaughter of René de Penancoët, Seigneur de Kérouaille et Villeneuve, and his wife (married on 12 October 1602) Julienne Emery du Pont-l'Abbé, Dame du Chef du Bois, and maternal granddaughter of Sébastien de Ploeuc, Marquis de Timeur, and his wife (married on 8 January 1617) Marie de Rieux (d. 1628). The name Kérouaille was derived from an heiress whom an ancestor François de Penhoët had married in 1330.
The Kérouaille family were nobles in Brittany, and their name was so spelt by themselves. The form "Quérouaille" was commonly used in England. All are derivations of the original Breton name Kerouazle, which is the most common form in Brittany.
Louise had a sister, Henriette Mauricette de Penancoët de Kérouaille, who married firstly in 1674 Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke and secondly in 1685 Jean-Timoléon Gouffier, Marquis de Thais. Her paternal aunt, Suzanne de Penancoët married Claude Le Veyer; their daughter Catherine became the matriarch of the Breton noble family de Saisy de Kerampuil of Carhaix, Brittany. Her maternal aunt Renée Mauricette de Ploeuc de Timeur married Donatien de Maillé, Marquis de Carman (d. 1652).
Louise was early introduced to the household of Henrietta Anne Stuart, Duchess of Orléans, sister of Charles II of Great Britain, and sister-in-law of Louis XIV of France. Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, asserts that her family threw her in the way of Louis XIV in the hope that she would become a royal mistress. In 1670, she accompanied Henrietta on a visit to Charles II at Dover. The sudden death of Henrietta left her unprovided for, but Charles II appointed her a lady-in-waiting to his own queen, Catherine of Braganza. Unlike her predecessor Barbara Palmer, who had openly insulted the Queen, Louise was careful to show her every respect, and relations between the two women were never less than amicable.
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