The Life and Times of Frances Bard, the Duchess of Cumberland
That's my first attempt at the timeline here. The POD is "what if Rupert of Rhine legally married Lady Frances Bard in 1664". It is also an attempt at "keep protestant Stuart line on English throne", though, so no "King Rupert the First" here. Elector Palatine Rupert, though... is promised.
The Life and Times of Frances Bard, the Duchess of Cumberland
Chapter 1
The love story that saved the House of Stuarts
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Frances Bard, the Duchess of Cumberland since 1664, Electress of Palatinate since 1685 (1644-1708)
POD: In 1664, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness, enters the chambers of king Charles II with an unusual request – request to permit Rupert’s marriage with Lady Frances Bard, the only daughter of late Sir Henry Bard, 1st Viscount Bellomont.
The marriage was pretty scandalous since the bride was a daughter of Irish catholic, not to mention a daughter of mere Viscount. However, there was a precedent of an English prince of blood marrying a commoner – James, Duke of York married Anne Hyde, thus Charles II has no legal way to discourage his cousin from marrying a commoner, since he had not discouraged his brother from doing the same thing.
As a wedding present Rupert gets the positions of Constable of Windsor Castle and the Ranger of the Great Park. The Byfield House coming with the second position becomes known as the Cumberland Lodge from now on, since it’s now an official countryside residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland (OTL it also became known as the Cumberland Lodge, but in honor of another Duke of Cumberland).
Cumberland Lodge view
The relations with Charles-Louis, Rupert’s elder brother and Elector Palatine, became rather strained due to this marriage, which is morganatic by Palatinate standards. However Charles-Louis, with his bigamous family life and the whole mess with Raugravine Marie Luise von Degenfeld is not the person to lecture his brother on marriage matters and quickly realizes this. So he merely congratulates Rupert on marriage, though warning him that Rupert’s children from such a marriage may not be able to inherit Palatinate.
At first English court thought that the Duke of Cumberland’s marriage was based on the same thing as Duke of York marriage – i.e. bride’s unexpected pregnancy. If so, they were deeply disappointed that the firstborn of Duke and Duchess of Cumberland was born only in January 1666 – a healthy baby boy named Dudley Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern, known since birth by courtesy title Earl of Holderness.
Despite his mother being a Catholic, Rupert saw that his son was christened in Anglican Faith. The godfather of infant Earl of Holderness was just slightly less infant James Stuart, Duke of Cambridge. The godmother by proxy was Henriette-Anne, Duchess of Orleans, who Rupert courted for some time in 1659 before her departure to France.
James, Duke of Cambridge, wearing the regalia of Order of Garter
As a “reverse courtesy”, Rupert also was a godfather of Charles Stuart, Duke of Kendall, second son of James of York (Note: In OTL, the godfather of Charles Stuart was his elder brother James Stuart, Duke of Cambridge).
Both young fathers, however, were soon deprived from the family pleasures and recalled to the battlefront. With two married family relations of his, one with heir and second with heir and a spare, Charles decided to allow both join the navy and participate in the Four Day Battle and St. James’ Day Battle (Note: In OTL the Duke of York was recalled from the fleet after the Battle of Lowestoft and replaced by Rupert as the senior commander of the fleet, but here, when Rupert is also married and with a son, Charles decides that allowing them both take the risk would be more fair and favorable for English case, than either sending them both away or sending only Rupert to the front) which ended in the total victory for British fleet.
The epidemics of bubonic plague in 1666-1667 was, however, a deep strike o the British royal family. Rupert and James were both recalled to accompany the King in London. Rupert, genuinely scared for well-being of his family, told pregnant Frances with infant Dudley to stay in Windsor and not in the plague-filled city. Frances asked the Duke of York for permission to send his older son, James, with them “so that young Dudley will have a playmate”. Despite King being adamant that the whole Royal Family stays in London during disaster days, he’s not a sadist and weeping beautiful women touch somewhat of a soft spot in his heart.
The Duke of Cambridge remains with the Duchess of Cumberland and young Earl of Holderness till the end of epidemics. The “miracle of House of Stuart” becomes even more evident when Rupert’s godson Charles of Kendall dies in May 1667 (In OTL both Charles and James died in the epidemics outbreak). The Duchess of Cumberland would later be regarded by the English in the same way as the governess of Louis XV for saving main line of House of Bourbon from extinction. Ironically, a protestant line of Stuarts was saved by a Catholic Duchess of Cumberland.
However, the Royal Family soon welcomes two new additions – Edgar, Duke of Kendall (“the second Duke of Kendall” or “the spare Duke” as the infant is called informally, to distinguish him from Charles of Kendall) born in September 1667 and Ruperta-Elisabeth of Cumberland, a second child of Rupert and Frances, born on December 16, 1667 – “a birthday present” for Rupert, as he jokes. At the same year young Dudley Holderness receives his first “real” non-courtesy title becoming as his uncle, 2nd Viscount, dies fighting the French at St. Kits. The title of Viscount of Bellomont is recreated in peerage of England, and then “upgraded” to the earldom. So the courtesy title of Earl of Holderness is pushed aside by the title of 1st Earl of Bellomont, as young Dudley-Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern is now known at court.
A military life for Rupert and James of York is however not all rosy and nice as the Second English-Dutch war ends in rather ugly stalemate following the Raid of Medway. That forced the signing of the Treaty of Breda ending the war as in OTL. Ironically, the victory of Dutch was Pyrric and it lead to the downfall of de Witt regime later on, as Treaty of Breda managed to piss off both Charles II and Louis XIV.
In 1670 Henriette, the Duchess of Orleans, dies of gastric ulcer perforation with frequent rumors about her being poisoned circulating in both French and English courts. Young Dudley Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern is now old enough to understand the death of his godmother which he mourns deeply. The same year, however, the Cumberland family welcomes new addition – a boy named Maurice in honor of Rupert’s late brother, healthy and “too damn loud” by his father’s account.
In 1671 the Duchess of York dies of cancer, two of her children – 3-years old Edgar of Kendall and 8-months old Catherine of York following her to the grave the same year. James of York is left with three surviving children – Mary, born in 1662, James, Duke of Cambridge, born in 1663 (for whom his father and uncle already began to search a suitable bride), and Anne, born in 1665. Unlike OTL, having a surviving healthy son puts him under no pressure to marry, much less marry a niece of scandalous Duchess of Mazaren, so he discards this marriage idea (not to mention Mary of Modena is closer in age to James of Cambridge, for whom she’s also regarded as a bride).
In the circle of his friends James jokes about marrying Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, “the smallpox-scarred hag” (though the Duke is no paragon of beauty at the moment) who is right now too busy weaseling out of marrying Philippe of Orleans and attempting to marry Lauzin. Ironically, both Charles II and Louis XIV find the joke funny enough to try it, or so it seems – Anne gets into real bad quarrel with the rest of Royal Family about Lauzin and is proposed a “loophole” with marriage to the Duke of York as the way of strengthening the Treaty of Dover which quickly becomes a “non-secret-secret” among European courts.
Anne de Montpensier, the Grand Mademoiselle, the second wife of the Duke of York
In 1672 at the start of Third English-Dutch War Anne de Montpensier reluctantly becomes a Duchess of York, Albany and Normandy. This marriage will allow her to become a Queen – considering Catherine of Braganza is barren and considering Duke of York outlives his brother, which is possible. At least this is better than marrying openly gay man or getting estranged from the whole royal family. As part of marriage contract she sells the titles of Duchess of Saint-Fargeau and Châtellerault to the Duke of Orleans, and sells the title of Princess of Joinville to the crown (the principality is later given to the Duke of Maine, the illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan) , and is allowed to keep the rest of her titles as the personal property of her and her heirs (shall she have any, since she’s almost 45 years old at this point). Provided she fails to have heirs with Duke of York, all her titles, bar ones belonging to the Duchy of Normandy territorially (the Duke of York is titled Duke of Normandy in France since 1660), so the worst case loss for the French crown is County of Eu. The marriage is viewed as an exile and a even as practical joke pulled by two kings on their unfortunate relatives. Since the Duchess of Montpensier is near 45 years old at the moment, nobody expects her to have any children, but at least she has 90% chance to become a queen unless Catherine of Braganza suddenly carries a child to term, if only for a few years. The Cavalier Parliament does not see any danger to Protestant inheritance in aging princess, and thus never gets suspended unlike OTL. Lauzin, who served under the Duke of York in Flanders, follows his not-to-be wife to England to start one of the craziest love triangles of era. Considering that Lauzin was “the ugliest sex god ever”, and the official mistress of James of York, Arabella Churchill, was also rather plain woman, the family matters of the Yorks were worth a good comedy.
Jokes aside, the marriage to the Grande Mademoiselle now gives her two stepdaughters access to the large dowry, and Charles and James have found a suitable bride for James of Cambridge – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark (yes, THAT Ulrika Eleonora, OTL mother of Charles XII of Sweden). The Danes proved to be allies in the Second English-Dutch war (despite plunder in Bergen ending up as a failure) and the French court had nothing against this marriage serving to keep the Dutch at bay (no pun intended). James and Ulrika Eleonora were to be married in 1678 when the groom is 15 years old, the betrothal being held in 1673 (thus the English court beats Sweden to it). That ensured the continuation of the Protestant line of Stuarts.
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Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark and Norway, Duchess of Cambridge since 1678, Princess of Wales since 1685
In 1674 Louis-Henry of Simmern-Kaiserslautern dies, and von Simmern secundogeniture title, Duke of Simmern-Kaiserslautern , becomes vacant. Charles-Louis writes to Rupert, offering him to return and to pay the Imperial tax which will allow his marriage with Frances Bard to be recognized as legal in Holy Roman Empire. Rupert agrees to pay the tax from the incomes of Simmern-Kaiserslautern Duchy, but disagrees to return. Due to barren wife and legion of mistresses of Charles II and strange comedy of the second marriage of the Duke of York at least one prince of blood has to stay in England to give the example of a happily married man – that to be Rupert. However, Rupert agrees to send his second son, Maurice, to his uncle to be taught Palatinate laws and customs and serve as “spare presumptive”. Dudley stays in England with his mother (at this point Rupert still hopes that Wilhelmine Ernestine of Denmark carries a child to term, so he won’t have to return to dull Heidelberg, however he’s happy with Maurice getting a secundogeniture, since he doesn’t want his second son to end up like him – with long, prestigious, but empty title, and having a real thing in form of Imperial principality, even as tiny as Kaiserslautern, will be definitely good for the boy).
Charles-Louis' daughter, Liselotte, as OTL, married Philippe of Orleans, thus creating the intricate network of marriage alliances between France, England, Palatinate and Denmark.
What of Mary of Modena in TTL? In 1676 the eighteen-old Mary was married to the 15-years old Charles the Bewitched, as Mary’s mother planned. Those plans were assisted by Don John of Austria Jr., ambitious illegitimate half brother of young king, who saw in that pragmatic daughter of upstart Italian an opportunity in both seizing power from Dowager Queen-Regent Marianna, and a vital instrument for saving the glory of Spain as he sees it… the role which a princess of…well, bluer blood won’t be able to fulfill.[/FONT]
That's my first attempt at the timeline here. The POD is "what if Rupert of Rhine legally married Lady Frances Bard in 1664". It is also an attempt at "keep protestant Stuart line on English throne", though, so no "King Rupert the First" here. Elector Palatine Rupert, though... is promised.
The Life and Times of Frances Bard, the Duchess of Cumberland
Chapter 1
The love story that saved the House of Stuarts
Frances Bard, the Duchess of Cumberland since 1664, Electress of Palatinate since 1685 (1644-1708)
POD: In 1664, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness, enters the chambers of king Charles II with an unusual request – request to permit Rupert’s marriage with Lady Frances Bard, the only daughter of late Sir Henry Bard, 1st Viscount Bellomont.
The marriage was pretty scandalous since the bride was a daughter of Irish catholic, not to mention a daughter of mere Viscount. However, there was a precedent of an English prince of blood marrying a commoner – James, Duke of York married Anne Hyde, thus Charles II has no legal way to discourage his cousin from marrying a commoner, since he had not discouraged his brother from doing the same thing.
As a wedding present Rupert gets the positions of Constable of Windsor Castle and the Ranger of the Great Park. The Byfield House coming with the second position becomes known as the Cumberland Lodge from now on, since it’s now an official countryside residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland (OTL it also became known as the Cumberland Lodge, but in honor of another Duke of Cumberland).
Cumberland Lodge view
The relations with Charles-Louis, Rupert’s elder brother and Elector Palatine, became rather strained due to this marriage, which is morganatic by Palatinate standards. However Charles-Louis, with his bigamous family life and the whole mess with Raugravine Marie Luise von Degenfeld is not the person to lecture his brother on marriage matters and quickly realizes this. So he merely congratulates Rupert on marriage, though warning him that Rupert’s children from such a marriage may not be able to inherit Palatinate.
At first English court thought that the Duke of Cumberland’s marriage was based on the same thing as Duke of York marriage – i.e. bride’s unexpected pregnancy. If so, they were deeply disappointed that the firstborn of Duke and Duchess of Cumberland was born only in January 1666 – a healthy baby boy named Dudley Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern, known since birth by courtesy title Earl of Holderness.
Despite his mother being a Catholic, Rupert saw that his son was christened in Anglican Faith. The godfather of infant Earl of Holderness was just slightly less infant James Stuart, Duke of Cambridge. The godmother by proxy was Henriette-Anne, Duchess of Orleans, who Rupert courted for some time in 1659 before her departure to France.
James, Duke of Cambridge, wearing the regalia of Order of Garter
As a “reverse courtesy”, Rupert also was a godfather of Charles Stuart, Duke of Kendall, second son of James of York (Note: In OTL, the godfather of Charles Stuart was his elder brother James Stuart, Duke of Cambridge).
Both young fathers, however, were soon deprived from the family pleasures and recalled to the battlefront. With two married family relations of his, one with heir and second with heir and a spare, Charles decided to allow both join the navy and participate in the Four Day Battle and St. James’ Day Battle (Note: In OTL the Duke of York was recalled from the fleet after the Battle of Lowestoft and replaced by Rupert as the senior commander of the fleet, but here, when Rupert is also married and with a son, Charles decides that allowing them both take the risk would be more fair and favorable for English case, than either sending them both away or sending only Rupert to the front) which ended in the total victory for British fleet.
The epidemics of bubonic plague in 1666-1667 was, however, a deep strike o the British royal family. Rupert and James were both recalled to accompany the King in London. Rupert, genuinely scared for well-being of his family, told pregnant Frances with infant Dudley to stay in Windsor and not in the plague-filled city. Frances asked the Duke of York for permission to send his older son, James, with them “so that young Dudley will have a playmate”. Despite King being adamant that the whole Royal Family stays in London during disaster days, he’s not a sadist and weeping beautiful women touch somewhat of a soft spot in his heart.
The Duke of Cambridge remains with the Duchess of Cumberland and young Earl of Holderness till the end of epidemics. The “miracle of House of Stuart” becomes even more evident when Rupert’s godson Charles of Kendall dies in May 1667 (In OTL both Charles and James died in the epidemics outbreak). The Duchess of Cumberland would later be regarded by the English in the same way as the governess of Louis XV for saving main line of House of Bourbon from extinction. Ironically, a protestant line of Stuarts was saved by a Catholic Duchess of Cumberland.
However, the Royal Family soon welcomes two new additions – Edgar, Duke of Kendall (“the second Duke of Kendall” or “the spare Duke” as the infant is called informally, to distinguish him from Charles of Kendall) born in September 1667 and Ruperta-Elisabeth of Cumberland, a second child of Rupert and Frances, born on December 16, 1667 – “a birthday present” for Rupert, as he jokes. At the same year young Dudley Holderness receives his first “real” non-courtesy title becoming as his uncle, 2nd Viscount, dies fighting the French at St. Kits. The title of Viscount of Bellomont is recreated in peerage of England, and then “upgraded” to the earldom. So the courtesy title of Earl of Holderness is pushed aside by the title of 1st Earl of Bellomont, as young Dudley-Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern is now known at court.
A military life for Rupert and James of York is however not all rosy and nice as the Second English-Dutch war ends in rather ugly stalemate following the Raid of Medway. That forced the signing of the Treaty of Breda ending the war as in OTL. Ironically, the victory of Dutch was Pyrric and it lead to the downfall of de Witt regime later on, as Treaty of Breda managed to piss off both Charles II and Louis XIV.
In 1670 Henriette, the Duchess of Orleans, dies of gastric ulcer perforation with frequent rumors about her being poisoned circulating in both French and English courts. Young Dudley Rupert of Palatinate-Simmern is now old enough to understand the death of his godmother which he mourns deeply. The same year, however, the Cumberland family welcomes new addition – a boy named Maurice in honor of Rupert’s late brother, healthy and “too damn loud” by his father’s account.
In 1671 the Duchess of York dies of cancer, two of her children – 3-years old Edgar of Kendall and 8-months old Catherine of York following her to the grave the same year. James of York is left with three surviving children – Mary, born in 1662, James, Duke of Cambridge, born in 1663 (for whom his father and uncle already began to search a suitable bride), and Anne, born in 1665. Unlike OTL, having a surviving healthy son puts him under no pressure to marry, much less marry a niece of scandalous Duchess of Mazaren, so he discards this marriage idea (not to mention Mary of Modena is closer in age to James of Cambridge, for whom she’s also regarded as a bride).
In the circle of his friends James jokes about marrying Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, “the smallpox-scarred hag” (though the Duke is no paragon of beauty at the moment) who is right now too busy weaseling out of marrying Philippe of Orleans and attempting to marry Lauzin. Ironically, both Charles II and Louis XIV find the joke funny enough to try it, or so it seems – Anne gets into real bad quarrel with the rest of Royal Family about Lauzin and is proposed a “loophole” with marriage to the Duke of York as the way of strengthening the Treaty of Dover which quickly becomes a “non-secret-secret” among European courts.
Anne de Montpensier, the Grand Mademoiselle, the second wife of the Duke of York
In 1672 at the start of Third English-Dutch War Anne de Montpensier reluctantly becomes a Duchess of York, Albany and Normandy. This marriage will allow her to become a Queen – considering Catherine of Braganza is barren and considering Duke of York outlives his brother, which is possible. At least this is better than marrying openly gay man or getting estranged from the whole royal family. As part of marriage contract she sells the titles of Duchess of Saint-Fargeau and Châtellerault to the Duke of Orleans, and sells the title of Princess of Joinville to the crown (the principality is later given to the Duke of Maine, the illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan) , and is allowed to keep the rest of her titles as the personal property of her and her heirs (shall she have any, since she’s almost 45 years old at this point). Provided she fails to have heirs with Duke of York, all her titles, bar ones belonging to the Duchy of Normandy territorially (the Duke of York is titled Duke of Normandy in France since 1660), so the worst case loss for the French crown is County of Eu. The marriage is viewed as an exile and a even as practical joke pulled by two kings on their unfortunate relatives. Since the Duchess of Montpensier is near 45 years old at the moment, nobody expects her to have any children, but at least she has 90% chance to become a queen unless Catherine of Braganza suddenly carries a child to term, if only for a few years. The Cavalier Parliament does not see any danger to Protestant inheritance in aging princess, and thus never gets suspended unlike OTL. Lauzin, who served under the Duke of York in Flanders, follows his not-to-be wife to England to start one of the craziest love triangles of era. Considering that Lauzin was “the ugliest sex god ever”, and the official mistress of James of York, Arabella Churchill, was also rather plain woman, the family matters of the Yorks were worth a good comedy.
Jokes aside, the marriage to the Grande Mademoiselle now gives her two stepdaughters access to the large dowry, and Charles and James have found a suitable bride for James of Cambridge – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark (yes, THAT Ulrika Eleonora, OTL mother of Charles XII of Sweden). The Danes proved to be allies in the Second English-Dutch war (despite plunder in Bergen ending up as a failure) and the French court had nothing against this marriage serving to keep the Dutch at bay (no pun intended). James and Ulrika Eleonora were to be married in 1678 when the groom is 15 years old, the betrothal being held in 1673 (thus the English court beats Sweden to it). That ensured the continuation of the Protestant line of Stuarts.
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Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark and Norway, Duchess of Cambridge since 1678, Princess of Wales since 1685
In 1674 Louis-Henry of Simmern-Kaiserslautern dies, and von Simmern secundogeniture title, Duke of Simmern-Kaiserslautern , becomes vacant. Charles-Louis writes to Rupert, offering him to return and to pay the Imperial tax which will allow his marriage with Frances Bard to be recognized as legal in Holy Roman Empire. Rupert agrees to pay the tax from the incomes of Simmern-Kaiserslautern Duchy, but disagrees to return. Due to barren wife and legion of mistresses of Charles II and strange comedy of the second marriage of the Duke of York at least one prince of blood has to stay in England to give the example of a happily married man – that to be Rupert. However, Rupert agrees to send his second son, Maurice, to his uncle to be taught Palatinate laws and customs and serve as “spare presumptive”. Dudley stays in England with his mother (at this point Rupert still hopes that Wilhelmine Ernestine of Denmark carries a child to term, so he won’t have to return to dull Heidelberg, however he’s happy with Maurice getting a secundogeniture, since he doesn’t want his second son to end up like him – with long, prestigious, but empty title, and having a real thing in form of Imperial principality, even as tiny as Kaiserslautern, will be definitely good for the boy).
Charles-Louis' daughter, Liselotte, as OTL, married Philippe of Orleans, thus creating the intricate network of marriage alliances between France, England, Palatinate and Denmark.
What of Mary of Modena in TTL? In 1676 the eighteen-old Mary was married to the 15-years old Charles the Bewitched, as Mary’s mother planned. Those plans were assisted by Don John of Austria Jr., ambitious illegitimate half brother of young king, who saw in that pragmatic daughter of upstart Italian an opportunity in both seizing power from Dowager Queen-Regent Marianna, and a vital instrument for saving the glory of Spain as he sees it… the role which a princess of…well, bluer blood won’t be able to fulfill.[/FONT]
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