Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon (11 December 1679 – 1 January 1742) was a British Lady in Waiting. She is known as the influential favourite of queen regent Caroline.
Life
Charlotte Dyve was the daughter of John Dyve, clerk of the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
and Frances Wolseley, and granddaughter of Sir
Lewis Dyve
Sir Lewis Dyve (1599–1669) was an English Member of Parliament and a Royalist adherent during the English Civil War. His surname is sometimes also spelt Dive or Dives.
Life
Dyve was born on 3 November 1599.Bromham in Bedfordshire. She married William Clayton, a Treasury official, at some date before 1715. In 1735 she became Lady Sundon when her husband was made first Baron Sundon. They had no children.
Charlotte Clayton was a
woman of the bedchamber
In the Royal Household of the United Kingdom the term Woman of the Bedchamber is used to describe a woman (usually a daughter of a peer) attending either a queen regnant or queen consort, in the role of lady-in-waiting. Historically the term 'Ge ...
to Queen Caroline from 1714 until 1737. She enjoyed a lot of influence with the Queen, who served as regent during the absence of the king, and she was mistrusted by
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader ...
who suspected that it was her opinions that were making the Queen uncooperative in state affairs. It was alleged that she even proposed that she and Walpole could rule the country. The Queen's death was a great blow to her, and in her last years she was afflicted with a painful tumour as well as (according to gossip) bouts of insanity.