In the spring of 1659, Charles II had spent a decade in exile in Brussels, and the Royalists who supported him were working to bring him back to England and power. He and his courtiers were searching for a proper marriage alliance for him and he was not yet married.
Young Barbara Villiers was courted by Royalist Roger Palmer, who had a modest inheritance but was educated at Eton and Cambridge and considered to be of good character and steady. Palmer was excellent choice for a young woman of lesser expectations. In April 1659, when he was twenty-four and she was eighteen, they married in church. Barbara's family was against this marriage because Roger and his family were Catholics. His father was also against the marriage. He had warned Roger that Barbara would not be faithful to him. His father was right. She continued to love and be the lover of the man who had first stolen her heart. But soon that man would flee to France and she would be sent to Brussels.
She had become ill with smallpox. Luckily she survived it and without the disfigurement that often resulted. It was understood that a survivor of smallpox had immunity.
Excerpts Pages 23 -24 from The Illustrious Lady by Elizabeth Hamilton
The King's Court was now at Brussels, and in the spring of 1660 there was a virulent outbreak of smallpox in Flanders, so that it was important to choose messengers from England who had already had the disease. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to find Royalists who were free to ross the Channel, for many of them were working hard for the Kings cause (to return to England) and others, like Roger Palmer, had immersed themselves in the forthcoming elections in the hope of achieving a Parliament loyal to the Crown....
...The trusting Roger may have appreciated the advantages of sending a member of the family to the exiled Court, but in spite of all the warnings he had been given he apparently failed to foresee just how much success his wife was likely to achieve. Nothing definite is known about the steps that were taken to convey Barbara Palmer to the Continent, or what were the real reasons for the decision, but it is generally agreed that she did visit the King, and that he succumbed to her charms without undue delay He was by now something of a connoisseur of female beauty. He had been credited with sixteen mistress, an estimate which he himself modestly disclaimed, although flattered that he was thought capable of such a total. Nobody disputed the fact that Barbara was beautiful, and it was equally certain that she was no longer innocent, for she had been schooled int he world of royalist society where nobody thought too much about the future of worried themselves unduly about the consequences of their own actions.
... King or not, Charles II was attractive enough to conquer a woman in his own right. Tall and very dark, with an amenable disposition and humorous outlook on life, he seemed to possess an unlimited capacity for enjoyment....
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The King had several known mistresses, short relationships if they were that, and only Lucy Walter, who had a son with the King, refused to be sent away. In the summer of 1659 King Charles II did return to England. Roger Palmer had the King's favor, for he had made loans to the King, and had returned to Parliament. It was necessary that he live nearby - for now.
Excerpt page 27
...The route from Canterbury had been lined with people and strewn with flowers, 'like one continues street wonderfully inhabited'. As the King rose over London Bridge, bare heard, church bells rang, trumpets sounded and there was music, publicly played for the first time for years. The enthusiasm of the crowed was likened to the joy of emancipated slaves. It seemed as if the age of austerity was over; the streets were hung with tapestry, the fountains ran with wine....
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It is said that Barbara lost no time in bedding the King.
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