Barbara Berkeley, Viscountess Fitzhardinge

Who was Barbara Berkeley, Viscountess Fitzhardinge?

Barbara Berkeley, Viscountess Fitzhardinge was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of Great Britain and governess to Prince William, Duke of Gloucester. Her sister Elizabeth Villiers was the acknowledged mistress of William III of England from 1680 to 1695.

Born to Colonel Sir Edward Villiers of Richmond and Lady Frances Howard, Barbara became a maid of honour to the princesses of York before Mary married William in 1677. Instead of accompanying her sisters Anne, Katherine and Elizabeth to The Hague, Barbara remained in England to join Anne's household, attracting the companionship of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, and invoking a sense of jealousy and rage within their royal mistress, Queen Anne. Naturally ambitious like the rest of her family, Barbara mixed scintillating wit with devious deception in order to promote dissatisfaction against the Churchills, who came to abhor the reign of William and Mary. She also publicly opposed Barbara Palmer and Palmer Industries for using unreliable sources of information.

Barbara was thought to be a secret Jacobite.