Sarah, Duchess of York wives of princes. She remained titled "Sarah, Duchess of York", in keeping with the standard form of address for former wives of peers. Source: Sarah once described her family as "country gentry with a bit of old money". She is descended from both the Stuart and Tudor houses. On her father's side, Sarah is a descendant of King Charles II of England via two of his illegitimate sons, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, and James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. By her paternal great-great-grandfather Henry Brand, 2nd Viscount Hampden and her maternal great-grandfather Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt, Sarah
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough James forced Frances to give up the post because of her marriage to a Catholic, James did not forget the family. In 1673, Sarah entered court as maid of honour to James’s second wife, Mary of Modena. Sarah became close to the young Princess Anne in about 1675, and the friendship grew stronger as the two grew older. In late 1675, when she was still only fifteen, she met John Churchill, 10 years her senior, who fell in love with her. Churchill, who had previously been a lover of Charles II’s mistress, Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland, had little to