On 29 September 1643, her father died in the First English Civil War from a wound sustained on 26 July at the storming of Bristol, while leading a brigade of Cavaliers.

Shortly after Lord Grandison's death, Barbara's mother next married Charles Villiers, 2nd Earl of Anglesey, a cousin of her late husband.

Every year on 29 May, the new King's birthday, young Barbara, along with her family, descended to the cellar of their home in total darkness and clandestinely drank to his health.

Tall, voluptuous, with masses of brunette hair, slanting, heavy-lidded violet eyes, alabaster skin, and a sensuous, sulky mouth,[6] Barbara Villiers was considered one of the most beautiful of the Royalist women, but her lack of fortune left her with reduced marriage prospects.

[7] On 14 April 1659 she married Roger Palmer (later 1st Earl of Castlemaine), a Roman Catholic, against his family's wishes; his father predicted that she would make him one of the most miserable men in the world.

These titles were given with the stipulation that they would only be passed down through Roger's heirs by Barbara, and thus served as a way for the king to indirectly secure an inheritance for his illegitimate children.

Samuel Pepys reported that the customary bonfire outside Lady Castlemaine's house was left conspicuously unlit for the Queen's arrival.

[14] In point of fact, she planned to give birth to her and Charles' second child at Hampton Court Palace while the royal couple were honeymooning.

She was made Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland in her own right, but no one at court knew whether this was an indication that she was being jettisoned by Charles or a sign that she was even higher in his favours.

Later in their relationship, the Duchess of Cleveland took other lovers too, including the acrobat Jacob Hall, the 1st Baron Dover and her second cousin John Churchill.

After his death, the 45-year-old Duchess began an affair with Cardonell Goodman, an actor of terrible reputation, and in March 1686 gave birth to his child, a son.

Barbara died at age 68 on 9 October 1709 at her home, Walpole House on Chiswick Mall, after suffering from dropsy, now described as oedema of the legs, with congestive heart failure.

Barbara Villiers figures prominently in Bernard Shaw's In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939) and Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn (2015), played in the premiere productions by Daphne Heard and Sasha Waddell respectively.