Ancestry and early life Lucy Walter was born into minor Welsh gentry as the daughter of William Walter (died 1650) and his wife, born Elizabeth Prothero (died 1652), daughter of John Prothero and niece of
John Vaughan, 1st Earl of Carbery. She was probably born in 1630 at her family's home,
Roch Castle near
Haverfordwest in
Pembrokeshire,
Wales, and had two brothers, Richard and Justus. She received no formal education but learned
etiquette. As her parents had a strained relationship, they separated in 1640 when Walter was 10 years old. She, her mother and her brothers went to live with her maternal grandmother in London. She may have first met the Sidney family, who held the
earldom of Leicester, here through her maternal family members. In 1647, when Walter was 17, after a long legal battle between her parents, the
House of Lords ordered her and her brothers to live with their father, as their mother could no longer afford to keep them. Politician
Algernon Sidney (1623–1683), son of the
2nd Earl of Leicester later stated that he had purchased the
sexual services of Walter for 40 or 50
gold coins, but was called away to military services and missed out on his bargain. Walter then sailed to the
Dutch Republic, either alone or with her uncle, to join the exiled court of
Charles, Prince of Wales in
The Hague, hoping to find a lover among the many young aristocrats there. She briefly became the
mistress of Robert Sidney, brother of Algernon Sidney.
Relationship with Charles II In May 1648, Walter managed to meet and charm Prince Charles, who had by then been living in
France but visited
The Hague for a short time. They were both only 18, and it is usually assumed that she was his first mistress. They might have resumed their relationship in September 1648, when he was again in the
Dutch Republic. On 9 April 1649, Walter gave birth to a son,
James (1649–1685), who was acknowledged by Prince Charles as his
illegitimate child. The child was sent away to a
wet nurse near
Rotterdam, while Walter went to live in
Antwerp. In August 1649, Walter travelled to
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France to see Charles, who had become king in January after the execution of his father,
Charles I. She shared a coach with writer and diarist
John Evelyn, who described their encounter. During July and August 1649 she stayed with Charles in
Paris and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and she may have accompanied him to
Jersey in September. It was around this time that she started using the name of her relative, John Barlow of
Slebech.
Later life In June 1650, Charles left for
Scotland. There was an attempt to kidnap Walter's son, who was missing for 10 days but was eventually found. Her mother took him to
Paris for his safety, where she had an affair with
Theobald Taaffe, 2nd Viscount Taaffe (later 1st Earl of Carlingford; circa 1603–1677). On 6 May 1651, she gave birth to a daughter, Mary, whose father was probably the Viscount Taaffe. After the
Battle of Worcester in late 1651, Charles
escaped from England and returned to the
Dutch Republic. This time, he made it clear to Walter that their relationship was over, which she could not accept. For the next four years, she was involved in one scandal after another, causing much embarrassment to the exiled royal court. During this time, she considered marrying Sir
Henry de Vic, 1st Baronet (circa 1599–1671), which eventually came to nothing. She then returned to The Hague and became the mistress of Thomas Howard, brother of the
3rd Earl of Suffolk. In early 1656, when she was in
Cologne, some of the king's friends persuaded her to return to England by giving her cash and a pearl necklace and promising her a yearly
allowance of £400. She went to live in
London with Lord Thomas, her children and a
maid, Ann Hill. They lived over a barber shop near
Somerset House. She was suspected of being a
spy, and at the end of June 1656, she and Hill were arrested and imprisoned in the
Tower of London. After interrogation, they were released in July and deported back to the Dutch Republic. By this time, Lord Thomas had left her and she had no money to feed her children, as King Charles was unable to pay her allowance. She threatened him with releasing his letters to the public if he did not pay. The king, wanting custody of their eight-year-old son, attempted to kidnap him in December 1657, and succeeded at capturing him in March 1658. James was then sent to Paris and placed in the care of William, Lord Crofts, whose
surname he started using. Soon, Walter also moved to Paris. She was dying from a
venereal disease. She made a
General Confession of her life to
John Cosin, future
Bishop of Durham, insisting that she had married King Charles. She allegedly gave proof of this to Cosin, which he kept in a black box. This box was then supposedly inherited by Sir Gilbert Gerard, Cosin's son-in-law. Walter died between 29 August and December 1658 and was probably buried in the
Huguenot cemetery in the
Faubourg Saint-German district of Paris. After his restoration to the throne, King Charles took their son James to England and created him Duke of Monmouth. Because of his complicated childhood, James never learned to read and write properly. ==Aftermath during the Exclusion Crisis==