Charles II's Most Infamous Mistress: Barbara Villiers
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The tempestuous and passionate Barbara Villiers captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain, including King Charles II. But she had a dark side, humiliating her husband for decades, plotting the ruin of her enemies, and gambling away vast sums of money.
In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Andrea Zuvich who reveals the true story of Barbara and her insatiable appetite for life, love, riches, amusement, and power.
Presented by Professor Susannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Alice Smith, the audio editor is Ella Blaxill and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Professor Suzanne Ellipscombe, and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit, |
| 0:07.0 | the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Berlin to the Aztecs, |
| 0:11.0 | from Holbein to the Huguenoes, from Shakespeare to Summarise. |
| 0:17.0 | Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and witchcraft. |
| 0:21.0 | Not in other words, just the Tud tutors but most definitely also the tutors. We recently did a podcast on Charles II's Queen Catherine de Buganza. |
| 0:39.0 | Well today we're talking about the woman who was for a while at least her nemesis. |
| 0:44.4 | We're talking about one of the most fascinating and divisive women of the Stuart court, |
| 0:48.5 | a woman famed as Charles II's most notorious and longest standing mistress. She was Barbara Villiers, countess of |
| 0:57.1 | Castleman. Born in 1641, she would become known as England's uncrowned Queen as well as its curse. |
| 1:05.0 | She became mother to five of the King's children and wielded enormous political power |
| 1:09.3 | within his court as his favoured mistress for over a decade, and she sought to live her life almost entirely |
| 1:15.8 | in the pursuit of her own desires. But who was the woman described as rapacious, dissolute, violent and vengeful. |
| 1:26.3 | What do we really know of her motivations, her character and her influence? |
| 1:32.3 | Joining me today is Andrea Zuvich, novelist, historian and specialist in Stuart history. |
| 1:38.0 | Her forthcoming biography, |
| 1:40.0 | Ravenous, a life of Barbara Villiers, Charles II's most infamous mistress, seeks to get us closer than |
| 1:46.1 | ever to the woman behind the position. |
| 1:48.7 | I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and this is not just the tutors. |
| 1:55.0 | Andrea, welcome to the podcast. |
| 2:00.0 | Thank you so much for having me. |
| 2:02.0 | Let's start by thinking about the people that Barbara Villiers came from. |
| 2:08.3 | What do we know about her family? |
... |
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