SPIRITUAL AI

King Charles II had many mistresses most famously Nell Gwyn However one woman who I had not heard about was Frances Stuart. She was the daughter of royal physician Walter Stuart and his wife Sophia Carew. Diarist Samuel Pepys described Frances as the 'greatest beauty I ever saw, I think, in my life.' Frances (image one) had arrived at court in 1663 to take up the post as a lady in waiting to Charles' queen Catherine of Braganza. Charles is said to have been immediately smitten with the fifteen-year-old, but it seems the feeling was not mutual and Frances tried to avoid Charles' advances. She was bright enough to realise that one day she would have to succumb to the king, so with that in mind she eloped with the Duke of Richmond, Charles' cousin. Frances was a 'mistress' who got away, but one Lucy Walters (image three) was not so lucky. Years earlier, when Charles was about sixteen he had had a sexual relationship with Lucy who he had met when he