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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
Amongst the most conspicuous of the beauties whose fame has cast a glare of light over the atmosphere of Charles the Second's court, which has attracted more attention in after times than the more subdued and milder rays of a virtuous court will sometimes do, few ladies can, unfortunately, be named remarkable for anything more valuable than those charms which furnished sitters to painters, who
“—on animated canvass stole
The sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul:”
nor was Frances Stuart removed above the rest, except that there was less levity in her conduct, although her beauty outshone them all. She may serve as a type of the court ladies of her time, for there are scarcely any who deserve other notice than they have found in the Memoirs of Grammont.
Frances Theresa Stuart was the daughter of Walter Stuart, son of Lord Blantyre, who stood in a distant degree of relationship to the King. She was born about 1647, and educated in France, from whence she accompanied her mother to England, at a time when she had completed
“Fifteen lovely childish Springs,”
forming one of the fairest in the train of the Queen- Dowager, Henrietta Maria. Soon after her arrival in England, she was appointed maid of honour to Queen Catherine, and exchanged the admiration of the French for that of the English monarch; for it appears that Louis XIV. would willingly have detained the young beauty at his court, professing that he hoped she would there form an alliance equal to any in France, and presenting her with a rich jewel as a token of his regard.
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