CLEVELAND, BARBARA VILLIERS, DUCHESS OF (1641-1709), mistress of the English king, Charles II., was the daughter of William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison (d. 1643) by his wife Mary (d. 1684), daughter of Paul, 1st Viscount Bayning. In April 1659 Barbara married Roger Palmer, who was created earl of Castlemaine two years later, and soon after this marriage her intimacy with Charles II. began. The king was probably the father of her first child, Anne, born in Feb. 1661, although the paternity was also attributed to one of her earliest lovers, Philip Stanhope, 2nd earl of Chesterfield (1633-1713) . Mistress Palmer was made a lady of the bedchamber to Catherine of Braganza. Her house became a rendezvous for the enemies of Clarendon, and according to Pepys she exhibited a wild paroxysm of delight when she heard of the minister's fall from povs . r in 1667. Her influence, which had been gradually rising, became supreme at court in 1667 owing to the marriage of Frances Stuart (la belle Stuart) (1648-1702) with Charles Stuart, 3rd duke of Richmond (164o-72). Accord ingly, Louis XIV., instructed his ambassador to pay special atten tion to Lady Castlemaine, who had become a Roman Catholic in 1663.
In Aug. 167o 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. About 167o her influence over Charles began to decline. She consoled herself meanwhile with other lovers, among them John Churchill, afterwards duke of Marlborough and William Wycherley; by 1674 she had been en tirely supplanted at court by Louise de Kerouaille, duchess of Portsmouth. The duchess of Cleveland then 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 Oct. 9, 1709.
Her eldest son, CHARLES FITZROY (1662-173o), was created in 1675 earl of Chichester and duke of Southampton, and became duke of Cleveland, and earl of Southampton on his mother's death. Her second son, Henry (1663-9o), was created earl of Euston in 1672 and duke of Grafton in 1675; by his wife Isabella, daughter of Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, he was the direct ancestor of the later dukes of Grafton; the most popular and the most able of the sons of Charles II., he met his death through a wound re ceived at the storming of Cork. Her third son, George (1665 1716), was created duke of Northumberland in 1683 and died with out issue. Her daughters were Anne (1661-17 2 2) , married in 1674 to Thomas Lennard, Lord Dacre (d. 1715), who was created earl of Sussex in 1684; Charlotte (1664-1718), married in 1677 to Ed ward Henry Lee, earl of Lichfield (d. 1716) ; and Barbara (1672 173 7) , the reputed daughter of John Churchill, who entered a nun nery in France, and became by James Douglas, afterwards 4th duke of Hamilton (1658-1712), the mother of an illegitimate son, Charles Hamilton (1691-17 54)• See G. S. Steinman, Memoir of Barbara duchess of Cleveland (1871) and Addenda