RICHMOND, CHARLES LENNOX, 1ST DUKE OF, 1ST DUKE OF ...

born July 29, 1672, London died May 27, 1723, Goodwood, Sussex, Eng. son of Charles II of England by his mistress Louise de Kroualle, duchess of Portsmouth. He was aide-de-camp to William III from 1693 to 1702 and lord of the bedchamber to George I from 1714 to 1723. Charles II awarded a number of peerages (duchies, earldoms, and baronies) to his infant son in 1675; Louis XIV of France also gave him the duchy of Aubigny in remainder to the mother. Richmond held several titular posts during his childhood; and, when his father died and his uncle James II came to the throne (1685), he and his mother repaired to Paris, where he formally accepted Roman Catholicism and served in the French armies. In 1692, however, after the Protestant revolution in Britain, he secretly made his way back to England, where he renounced Catholicism, accepted Anglicanism, befriended William III, and served in the British forces. He was later lord of the bedchamber and privy councillor in the reign of George I. Richmond is an ancestor of Diana Spencer, princess of Wales (from 1981).