Lucy Walter

Who was Lucy Walter?

Lucy Walter or Lucy Barlow was a mistress of King Charles II of England and mother of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. She is believed to have been born in 1630 or a little later at Roch Castle near Haverfordwest, Wales into a family of middling gentry.

The question of whether King Charles had secretly married Lucy Walter was raised during the Exclusion Crisis, when a Protestant faction wished to make her son the heir to the throne, while the king denied any marriage, and supported the claim of his brother, the Duke of York.

During the exclusion crisis [the possible marriage of Charles and Lucy] offered the whigs the easiest way of excluding the duke of York from the throne, while in 1685 it legitimized those who took up arms for Monmouth against James II. For these reasons Lucy Walter's short life is important as it explains why most of the political nation considered that a marriage between her and Charles was highly unlikely, but shows too that there were some straws available for the pro-marriage party to make use of.