On the 3rd of August,
1670, Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, was created Baroness
Nonsuch, of Nonsuch Park, Surrey; Countess of Southampton; and
Duchess of Cleveland in the peerage of England. The reasons for
crowding these honours thick upon her were, as the patent stated,
"in consideration of her noble descent, her father's death in the
service of the crown, and by reason of her personal virtues."
Nor did his majesty's extravagant favours to her end here. She
was now, as Mr. Povy told his friend Pepys, "in a higher command
over the king than ever--not as a mistress, for she scorns him,
but as a tyrant, to command him." In consequence of this power,
she was, two months after her creation as duchess, presented by
the monarch with the favourite hunting seat of Henry VIII., the
magnificent palace and great park of Nonsuch, in the parishes of
Cheam and Malden, in the county of Surrey. And yet a year later,
she received fresh proofs of his royal munificence by the gift of
"the manor, hundred, and advowson of Woking, county Surrey; the
manor and advowson of Chobham, the hundred of Blackheath and
Wootton, the manor of Bagshot (except the park, site of the manor
and manor-house, and the Bailiwick, and the office of the
Bailiwick, called Surrey Bailiwick, otherwise Bagshot Bailiwick),
and the advowson of Bisley, all in the same county."
Her wealth, the more notable at a time when the king was in debt,
and the nation impoverished from expenditure necessary to
warfare, was enormous.
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