Isabella FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton

The countess and her son.

Isabella Bennet FitzRoy, 2nd Countess of Arlington and Duchess of Grafton (c. 1668–7 February 1723) was a British peer and heiress.

Family and marriage

Isabella was the daughter of Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, a Royalist commander, by his wife Isabella de Nassau (1633–1718). (Her mother was a daughter of Louis of Nassau-Beverweerd and thus a granddaughter of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and a great-granddaughter of William the Silent). Henry was created Baron Arlington for his loyalty to the crown. Lord Arlington was later further raised in the peerage to the titles of Earl of Arlington and Viscount Thetford, all of which were created with special remainder to allow women to inherit.

Isabella was married at the age of four to Henry FitzRoy, Earl of Euston (later created Duke of Grafton), the nine-year-old illegitimate son of King Charles II. The wedding ceremony was repeated on 7 November 1679 and they lived at Euston Hall.[1] Isabella and her husband had one son, Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, who succeeded both his parents as 2nd Duke of Grafton and 3rd Earl of Arlington. After her first husband's death in 1690 from a wound received at the storming of Cork while leading the forces of William of Orange, the Duchess of Grafton remarried on 14 October 1698 to Sir Thomas Hanmer.[2][3]

Titles and styles

On the death of her father in 1685, Isabella succeeded to his titles suo jure.

Peerage of England
Preceded by
Henry Bennet		 Countess of Arlington
1685–1723 		Succeeded by
Charles FitzRoy

Other

Isabella is one of the Hampton Court Beauties painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller for Queen Mary II.

Isabella walked at the coronation of Queen Anne.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.eustonhall.co.uk/New/index.php?page=houseandgrounds
  2. ↑ Lundy, Darryl. "p. 10295 § 102948". The Peerage.
  3. ↑ "SELECTED BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES" (PDF). Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  4. ↑ Lundy, Darryl. "p. 10295 § 102948". The Peerage.

External links


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