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- As Peg Hughes she was a celebrated actress and as such caught the eye of King Charles II, if only fleetingly. Her attachment to the King's cousin, Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, was more lasting. She gave birth to his daughter, appropriately named Ruperta. It was said of her that she 'soothed Prince Rupert's old age'.
Even though she was regarded as Prince Rupert's morganatic wife, at one stage his elder brother, Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine, used their sister Sophie as an intermediary to sound out Rupert as to whether he was willing to marry appropriately and return to the Palatinate.
Sophie, Electress of Hanover, sent him a boatload of Hanoverian deer for Windsor Great Park, which Rupert gratefully and graciously accepted. However, he also remembered his oath that he had finished with the Palatinate after his brother stingingly had denied him his heritage. He had no intention of leaving Mrs. Margaret Hughes or their daughter.
Margaret remained on friendly terms with Rupert's sister and sent her shoes from London. However, Sophie's thank-you note maintained that they were 'the prettiest in the world, only too small'. From Prince Rupert she received a magnificent pearl-necklace which, after his death, she sold to Nell Gwynn for over four thousand guineas.
Leo van de Pas – 2008
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