Life
Arabella was the child of Sir Winston Churchill (an ancestor of the Prime Minister of the same name) and Elizabeth Drake. Her brother was John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. The Churchill's loyalty to the royal household was ardent; and their only feeling about Arabella's seduction by King James II seems to have been a joyful surprise that a so plain girl had attained such high preferment.
She began her relationship with James, then Duke of York, around 1665, while he was still married to Anne Hyde. Arabella became the duchess's lady-in-waiting in that year, and gave birth to two children during Anne's lifetime. Churchill was described as a "tall creature, pale-faced, and nothing but skin and bone." She often displayed the quick wit and lively intelligence which bound James to her through ten years and four children. Some time after 1674, she married Charles Godfrey and had three more children. They lived happily together for 40 years. Godfrey died in 1714, at the age of 67.
Read more about this topic: Arabella Churchill (royal Mistress)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“There a captive sat in chains
Crooning ditties treasured well
From his Afric’s torrid plains.
Sole estate his sire bequeathed,—
Hapless sire to hapless son,—
Was the wailing song he breathed,
And his chain when life was done.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“This is one of the most serious intrusions into personal life that I can think of, and it’s as bad as anything I’ve ever experienced.”
—Ellen Wood Hall (b. 1945)
“Your home is regarded as a model home, your life as a model life. But all this splendor, and you along with it ... it’s just as though it were built upon a shifting quagmire. A moment may come, a word can be spoken, and both you and all this splendor will collapse.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)