Henrietta FitzJames

Who was Henrietta FitzJames?

Henrietta FitzJames, the Dowager Lady Waldegrave and titular Countess of Newcastle, was an illegitimate daughter of James Stuart, Duke of York, afterward James II/VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, by his mistress, Arabella Churchill, herself sister of the Duke of Marlborough.

Henrietta was sister to the celebrated James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick. She was brought up a Roman Catholic, and married into a family of the same religion. On 29 November 1683 she married Henry Waldegrave, 1st Baron Waldegrave, and by him had two children:

Arabella;

James.

She accompanied her father and his queen in their exile, and lived some years at St. Germains. After Waldegrave's death in 1689, Lady Waldegrave married Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount of Galmoye, on 3 April 1695. He was created the Earl of Newcastle. The marriage was childless. She died in 1730 and was buried in at Navestock.

She is an ancestor of the Earls Spencer of Althorp, Diana, Princess of Wales, and also Diana's sons, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the heir to the British throne, and his younger brother Prince Harry.