Lucy Walter is an obscure historical figure but she has some fame as one of the first significant mistresses of Charles II.. and as the mother of James Duke of Monmouth who rebelled against his uncle James II...
Lucy was born around 1630 in Wales to a family of middle rank gentry. Some referred to her as a "strumpet" but in fact she was born to a genteel family. Her life was disrupted however by the English Civil wars... and it led her on a path which was unusual for young women of respectable family. Her family home was attacked during the wars, and she fled to London. She found a protector in Algernon Sidney who was a gentleman who favoured the republican philosophy but was ambivalent about Cromwell.
Lucy was an attractive girl without, it seems much brain but there were almost no options for a woman like her other than to marry or become a man's mistress. She seems however to have been willing to take the mistress option, and after a short affair with Algernon Sidney she moved on to the protection of his brother Robert. She ended up in the Hague like many refugees. There she met Charles II who was then Prince of Wales and became his mistress.
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