Frances Coke, Viscountess Purbeck (August 1602 – 4 June 1645), was the sister-in-law of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and the central figure in a notable sex scandal within the English

aristocracy Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense Economy, economic, Politics, political, and soc ...

of the early 17th century that was known at the time as "the Lady Purbeck’s business".

Early life

Frances was the younger daughter of the judge and privy councillor Sir Edward Coke and his second wife Lady Elizabeth Hatton. She was born at Hatton House in London, and baptised on 2 September 1602 in the parish church of St Andrew Holborn.

Forced marriage

In 1617, her father betrothed Frances (at age fifteen) to Sir John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, the elder brother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the favourite of King

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...

. The match was an apparent bid by Sir Edward Coke to win back royal favour, following his dismissal as Lord Chief Justice and from the Privy Council. Both Frances and her mother opposed the marriage. Lady Hatton sent Frances away from Hatton House on 10 July, without informing her father. Lady Hatton's plans involved a rented house and her extended family of cousins. She placed her daughter first with Lady Withipole; she was the former Frances Cornwallis, daughter of Sir William Cornwallis of Brome. The next step would be a pre-emptive betrothal to Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford. Sir Edward Coke discovered his daughter Frances, by chance, at a house near Oatlands, rented by Sir Edmond Withipole from the

Earl of Argyll Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The titl ...

, and took her away. By legal means he had her kept at the house of Sir Henry Yelverton, the Attorney-General; and then at the house of Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet, who owned Staines. It was rumoured that Frances was "tyed to the Bed-Poste and severely whipped into consent". In September 1617, she was married to Viscount Purbeck at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...

in the presence of the King and

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

. The congregation noticed her crying when they joined hands.

Aftermath of marriage

The marriage was an unhappy one. Viscount Purbeck was said to suffer from bouts of "insanity" (today believed to have probably been due to

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

). In 1621 the pair separated. In October 1624, Frances gave birth to a son who was baptised as Robert Wright. Rumours began that the child's father was Sir Robert Howard, a son of the Earl of Suffolk. In January 1625, King James signed a warrant for the trial for

adultery Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...

of the couple in the ecclesiastical

Court of High Commission A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. Courts gene ...

. However, as her first biographer points out, "The prosecution of Lady Purbeck was pretty clearly at the instigation of Buckingham and not of Purbeck." In fact, the Duke seems to have become obsessed with his sister-in-law's behaviour and appears to have accused her not only of adultery but also of

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

. In February 1625, he urged the Lord Chief Justice to imprison both her and Sir Robert Howard. Howard was confined in the Fleet Prison and Frances put under house arrest at the home of a London

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

. In March 1625, Howard was publicly excommunicated after he refused to answer to the charge against him and the proceedings were suspended. The trial resumed in November 1627 under Bishop George Montaigne and Frances was convicted of "incontinency", or adultery. Among her twenty commissioner-judges (only one of whom, Sir Charles Caesar, dissented from the judgment by excusing himself) was the poet

John Donne John Donne ( ; 1571 or 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's, D ...

, who was then Dean of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

Later life and death

Frances failed to perform her penance of standing barefoot in a white sheet in church and was again put under house arrest. She escaped by disguising herself as a page-boy and fled from London to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

where she lived in exile in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

for several years with her son. She converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and lodged for a time in a

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

although she did not become a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

. In 1640, Frances petitioned the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

for the return of her £10,000 marriage payment which had been appropriated by the Villiers family although she seems to have been unsuccessful. Eventually she returned to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, at the time of the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

, where she died of illness during the second siege of Oxford in May 1645 at the age of 42. She is buried in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin.

In literature and art

In the dramatist

Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A mas ...

''The Gypsies Metamorphosed'' (1621), the Second Gypsy addresses Lady Purbeck (who was among the original audience) as follows:

Help me wonder; here's a Book Where I would for ever look; Never yet did Gypsy trace Smoother lines in Hand or Face; Venus here doth Saturn move That you should be Queen of Love … You shall turn all hearts to tinder, And shall make the world one cinder.

During her exile in Paris, Sir

Kenelm Digby Sir Kenelm Digby (11 July 1603 – 11 June 1665) was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, astrologer and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Thomas White (scholar), Blackloist. For ...

wrote of her: "I have not seen more prudence, sweetnesse, goodnesse, honor and bravery shewed by any woman that I know, than this unfortunate lady sheweth she hath a rich stock of. Besides her natural endowments, doubtless her afflictions add much; or rather have polished, refined and heightened what nature gave her." Arthur Wilson, the early historian of the reign of King James I, wrote in 1653 that she was "a Lady of transcending beauty, but accused for wantonness".Arthur Wilson, ''The History of Great Britain, being the Life and Reign of King James the First'' (London, 1653), p. 147. The first biography of Lady Purbeck was published by an Edwardian gentleman-scholar, Thomas Longueville, in 1909. However, it omits important facts since Longueville was unaware of legal documents in the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

discovered later by the author Laura Norsworthy and published in her biography of Frances' mother Lady Hatton, ''The Lady of Bleeding Heart Yard'' (1935). The well-known British author

Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to h ...

devotes part of a chapter of her ''The Weaker Vessel'' (1984) to a modern summary of Frances' life. A new biography by American historian Johanna Luthman, ''Love, Madness, and Scandal: The Life of Frances Coke Villiers, Viscountess Purbeck'', was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2017. The only known portrait of Lady Purbeck, painted by the Dutch artist Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt of

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

and dated 1623, is on view to the public as part of the guided stairway tour at Ashdown House, Oxfordshire, a

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

property.

References