Sophia Bulkeley (née Stewart;

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1660 – 1718) was a Scottish Jacobite courtier in France.

Early life

She was a younger daughter of Walter Stewart (or Stuart), the third son of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre, M.P. for Monmouth, her elder sister being the court beauty Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond. The Stuarts were royalists, and were in exile in France under the Commonwealth.

Court life

Sophia returned to England after the Restoration of 1660, and in 1671 became a

maid of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Tudors and Stuarts Traditi ...

to Queen

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza (; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, King Charles II, which la ...

. About three years later she married Hon. Henry Bulkeley, which placed Sophia in the inner court circles, and, in due course in 1685, she became Dame du Palais to Queen

Mary of Modena Mary of Modena (; ) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James VII and II. A devout Catholic, Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was t ...

. About 1680 it was rumoured that Sidney Godolphin was enamoured of her. In October 1688 she was a witness with Queen Mary at the birth of her son, the young

James, Prince of Wales James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs or the King over the Water by Jacobites, was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until ...

. The

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

saw her move with the Queen and Stuart court to France in December 1688. Sophia remained a Jacobite loyalist, though she had personal reasons to return on occasion to England, something she managed in 1702. She tried to return again to England in 1713, on financial affairs, but was refused papers. She made a final attempt in 1718, which once more failed.

Personal life

Around 1673, she married Hon. Henry Bulkeley, the fourth son of Thomas Bulkeley, 1st Viscount Bulkeley of Baron Hill, near

Beaumaris Beaumaris (; ) is a town and community (Wales), community on the Anglesey, Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey fro ...

, and brother of the royalist general Richard Bulkeley. Henry was master of the household successively to Charles II and James II. Henry and Sophia Bulkeley had six children, including: * Anne Bulkeley (1673–1751), who married

James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick (21 August 1670 – 12 June 1734) was a French Royal Army officer and nobleman who was the eldest illegitimate son of James II of England by Arabella Churchill (royal mistress), Arabella Churchill, the ...

, illegitimate son of James II, with whom she had eight sons and five daughters. * Charlotte Bulkeley (b. ), who married Charles O'Brien, 5th Viscount Clare. After his death, she married Count Daniel O'Mahony. * François de Bulkeley (1686–1756), a

Lieutenant-general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was normall ...

; who married Marie-Anne O'Mahony, widow of

Richard Cantillon Richard Cantillon (; 1680s – ) was an Irish-French economist and author of '' Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général'' (''Essay on the Nature of Trade in General''), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of ...

and daughter of Count Daniel O'Mahony and Cecilia Weld.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulkeley, Sophia 17th-century Scottish people 18th-century Scottish people 17th-century Scottish women 18th-century Scottish women Scottish Jacobites Scottish ladies-in-waiting