Skip to main content
Home

User menu logged out

  • Subscribe
  • Sign in

https://www.historytoday.com/shop/buy-current-issue

Subscription
Offers

Give a Gift

Main menu

  • Home
  • The Magazine
  • Subscribe
  • Buy the Current Issue
  • Explore the Digital Archive
  • Institutions
  • Reviews
  • Sign in
Home

Mini header menu

  • Search
  • Magazine
  • Latest
  • Subscribe

Subscribe

Feature

Leading Ladies

The French tradition of the royal mistress gave new opportunities for women at the court of Charles II.

Annalisa Nicholson | Published in History Today Volume 70 Issue 8 August 2020

Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland with her son, possibly Charles FitzRoy, by Peter Lely, c.1664. Philip Mould & Company/Bridgeman Images.

To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.

Start my trial subscription now

If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.

Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.

BritainCharles II

Related Articles

HomeFront.jpg
On the Jacobite Rising’s Home Front
Charles_II_(1675).jpg
Charles II: The Reality Behind the Merry Monarchy

Popular articles

12th Bengal Cavalry, the winning polo team, Peshawar Tournament, 1898. British Library/Bridgeman Images.
King of Games: Politics, Polo, and the Raj
Enslaved people cultivating and curing tobacco in the West Indies, 1686. Heritage Images/TopFoto.
Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean

Recently published

Shaikh San'an and the Christian Maiden, from Mantiq al-Tayr, Farid al-Din `Attar, c.1600. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.
On the Spot: Nile Green
Enslaved people cultivating and curing tobacco in the West Indies, 1686. Heritage Images/TopFoto.
Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean
A storage room at the Foreign Office, 1949. Nationaal Archief. Public Domain.
‘Fakers’ by Rory Cormac review

Most read

  1. ‘A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda’ by Derek R. Peterson review
  2. King of Games: Politics, Polo, and the Raj
  3. Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean
  4. ‘The Shah’s Party and the Iranian Revolution That Followed’ review
  5. ‘Demosthenes’ by James Romm review
X
Get Miscellanies, our free weekly long read, in your inbox every week

Footer menu

  • About
  • Masthead
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Advertising
  • RSS feeds
  • Submit an Article
  • Back Issues
  • Binders
  • Cookie policy
  • Awards
  • Students
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of Use
  • X
  • Instagram
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook

© Copyright 2026 History Today Ltd. Company no. 1556332.