Background
Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, the daughter of Guillaume de Penancourt and his wife Marie de Plaeuc de Timeur, was born on July 5, 1649 in France.
Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, the daughter of Guillaume de Penancourt and his wife Marie de Plaeuc de Timeur, was born on July 5, 1649 in France.
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 the duchess of Orleans on a visit to Charles II at Dover.
It was said in after times that she had been selected by the French court to fascinate the king of England, but for this there, seems to be no evidence.
The support she received from the French envoy was given on the undei standing that she should serve the interests of her native sovereign.
The bargain was confirmed by gifts and honours from Louis XIV and was loyally carried out by Louise.
The hatred openly avowed for her in England was due as much to her own activity in the interest of France as to her notorious rapacity.
The titles of Baroness Petersfield, countess of Fareham and duchess of Portsmouth were granted her for life on the 19th of August 1673.
Her pensions and money allowances of various kinds were enormous.
In 1677 alone she received £27, 300.
The French court gave her frequent presents, and in December 1673 conferred upon her the ducal fief of Aubigny at the request of Charles II.
Her thorough understanding of the king's character enabled her to retain her hold on him to the end.
She contrived to escape uninjured during the crisis of the Popish Plot in 1678.
She was strong enough to maintain her position during a long illness in 1677, and a visit to France in 1682.
Soon after the king's death she retired to France, where, except for one short visit to England during the reign of James II, she remained.
Her pensions and an outrageous grant on the Irish revenue given her byCharles II were lost either in the reign of James II or at the Revolution of 1688.
During her last years she lived at Aubigny, and was harassed by debt.
The French king, Louis XIV, and after his death the regent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, gave her a pension, and protected her against her creditors. Louise died in Paris on 14 November 1734, aged 85.
Louise figures, together with Barbara Villiers and Nell Gwyn, in Bernard Shaw's late play In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939) and Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn (2015).
Louise briefly appears in Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber.
Louise is mentioned in the children's novel, Eliza Rose, by Mary Hooper, as a minor role.
Louise appears in Dark Angels by Karleen Koen, although her character goes by Renee.
Louise is the primary character in The French Mistress by Susan Holloway Scott.
Universally unpopular as French woman and catholic, she was mercenary, recklessly extravagant, and haughty to inferiors.
