Background
Catherine, queen consort of Charles II of England, daughter of John IV of Portugal, and of Louisa de Gusman, daughter of the duke of Medina Sidonia, was born on the 15/25 of November 1638 at Villia Vifosa.
Catherine, queen consort of Charles II of England, daughter of John IV of Portugal, and of Louisa de Gusman, daughter of the duke of Medina Sidonia, was born on the 15/25 of November 1638 at Villia Vifosa.
She reached England on the 13th of May 1662, but was not visited by Charles at Portsmouth till the 20th.
On the first presentation to her of Lady Castlemaine, Charles's mistress en litre, whom he insisted on making lady of her bedchamber, she fainted away.
To overcome her resistance nearly the whole of her Portuguese retinue was dismissed.
She was helpless, and the violence of her grief and anger soon changed to passive resistance, and then to a complete forbearance and complaisance which gained the king's regard and favour.
In 1678 the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was ascribed to her servants, and Titus Oates accused her of a design to poison the king.
On the 28th of November Oates accused her of high treason, and the Commons passed an address for her removal and that of all the Roman Catholics from Whitehall.
During the winter the calumnies against the queen were revived by Fitzharris, who, however, before his execution in 1681 confessed to their falsity; and after the revival of the king's influence subsequent to the Oxford parliament, the queen's position was no more assailed. During Charles's last illness in 1685 she showed great anxiety for his reconciliation with the Romish Church, and it was probably effected largely through her influence.
She exhibited great grief at his death.
She afterwards resided at Somerset House and at Hammersmith, where she had privately founded a convent.
She interceded with great generosity, but ineffectually, for Monmouth the same year.
She was still in England at the Revolution, having delayed her return to Portugal to prosecute a lawsuit against the second earl of Clarendon, formerly her chamberlain.
She maintained at first good terms, with William and Mary; but the practice of her religion aroused jealousies, while her establishment at Somerset House was said to be the home of cabals against the government; and in 1691 she settled for a short time at Euston.
She left England finally with a train of one hundred persons in March 1692, travelling through France and arriving at Lisbon on the 20th of January 1693.
She took up her residence at the palace of Bemposta, built by herself, near Lisbon.
She withdrew from the king's society, and in spite of Clarendon's attempts to moderate her resentment, declared she would return to Portugal rather than consent to a base compliance.
As a Roman Catholic and near to the king's person Catherine was the special object of attack by the inventors of the Popish Plot.
She had some charm.
Pepys thought her ‘mighty pretty’ when he saw her hand in hand with the king in 1663 and the following year remarked on her pretty broken English.
Catherine miscarried several times and had no live children.