Fitzcharles, Charles, Earl of Plymouth 1657?-1680, born in or about 1657, was the illegitimate son of Charles II, by Catherine, daughter of Thomas Pegge of Yeldersley, Derbyshire. In the time of his youth, writes the courtly Dugdale, giving much testimony of his singular accomplishments, he was elevated to the peerage, 28 July 1675, as Baron of Dartmouth, Viscount Totness, and Earl of Plymouth, to the end he might be the more encouraged to persist in the paths of virtue, and thereby be the better fitted for the managery of great affairs when he should attain to riper years (Baronage, iii. 487). He was colonel of the 2nd Tangier regiment. He married on 19 Sept. 1678 at Wimbledon, Surrey, Lady Bridget Osborne, third daughter of Thomas, first duke of Leeds, but died without issue at Tangier on 17 Oct. 1680, aged 23, and was buried on 18 Jan. 1680-1 in Westminster Abbey (Chester, Registers of Westminster Abbey, p. 201). His wife remarried, about August 1706, Philip Bisse, bishop of Hereford, and died on 9 May 1718 (Hist. Reg. 1718, Chron. Diary, p. 21). According to Wood (Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 270) he was commonly called Don Carlos.

Sources:
     Authorities as above.

Contributor: G. G. [Gordon Goodwin]

Published: 1889