Barbara Castlemaine Royal mistress

I have just been reading a novelised biography of Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland.
She was the most famous mistress of Charles II.  She was born into the aristocracy and grew up in the years of Civil war and when the King was exiled.   It was a time when the upper classes who were loyal to the King often impoverished themselves to try and restore him to the throne.  Barbara was said to be free with her favours even prior to marriage and to have been the mistress of Philip Lord Chesterfield.  She was a member of the Villiers family and cousin to the Duke of Buckingham.  However she married an obscure Royalist gentleman Roger Palmer.  He was a quiet dull man who was hardly a suitable husband for such a wild and passionate young woman.  Barbara showed her loyalty to the King by bringing him money during his exile, just prior to his return to London as King.
She probably became his mistress on her visit to the continent, and on his return she became known as his favourite.  She was considered to be very beautiful and flamboyant.  She was also extravagant, wild and selfish. In the early years of the Restoration she was constantly by Charles’ side, and produced several children by him.  Charles was an affectionate father and a generous lover, but as time went on Barbara sought other lovers to amuse her when he was not around.

She was considered to be promiscuous -and conservative royalists were horrified by the King’s selfish and sexed up lifestyle.  It was considered wrong that he allowed his mistresses to be prominent in court life. When he married Catherine of Braganza, he found that while he and his mistresses were able to produce children easily, his wife was less fertile and after a few years it was clear that he would not have a legitimate heir.   Barbara did annoy her royal lover as time passed by being less than respectful to his wife.

Barbara was the most hated of the royal mistresses and she was the subject of vulgar rhymes.  She separated from her husband Roger, because he was angry at her promiscuity and her producing children who were not his.  He went to live in France.  Barbara and Charles’s love affair, passionate at first, began to decline in intensity, and when her sixth baby was born, Charles refused to acknowledge the daughter as his.  It was more likely that the child was conceived by Barbara’s lover, John Churchill.   There was a story that Charles surprised Churchill in Barbara’s bedroom and when the younger man fled, Charles called after him “I forgive you, Mr Churchill because I know you do it for your bread.”
 http://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Road-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B00YQAL98C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1443951309&sr=1-1&keywords=nadine+sutton