Frederica Mildmay, Countess of Mértola

Frederica Susanna Mildmay, Countess FitzWalter, 3rd Countess of Mértola (née Schomberg, previously Frederica Darcy, Countess of Holderness; 1687 – 7 August 1751)[1] was a British peeress.

Frederica Mildmay
Countess FitzWalter suo jure Countess of Mértola
Frederica, Countess FitzWalter (circle of Joseph Highmore, 1727)
Full name Frederica Susanna Mildmay (née Schomberg)
Born	1687 Berlin
Died	7 August 1751 (aged 63–64)
Spouse(s)	Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness (m. 1715–21; his death) Benjamin Mildmay, 1st Earl FitzWalter (m. 1724–51; her death)
Issue Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness Caroline Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian
Father	Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg
Mother	Raugravine Karoline von der Pfalz

Life

Frederica was the eldest surviving daughter, and co-heir,[2] of Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg,[3] and his second wife, Raugravine Karoline Elisabeth von der Pfalz, a daughter of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine. On 26 May 1715, she married Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness, and they had two surviving children:

• Hon. Robert Darcy (1718–1778); later 4th Earl of Holderness.
• Lady Caroline Darcy (d. 1778); who married William Kerr, 4th Marquess of Lothian.[4]

On the death of the countess' father in 1719, she inherited his Portuguese countship of Mértola as his eldest surviving child. Her husband died in 1721 and on 18 June 1724,[5] she married Hon. Benjamin Mildmay, who was later created Earl FitzWalter in 1730. They had one child, who died in infancy.[1]

Via cognatic primogeniture, she was the most senior descendant of James I of England to be Protestant, but she was passed over for Sophia of Hanover. Her cognatic heir is Anthea Theresa Lycett (born Marcia Anne Miller), Countess of Mértola, eldest daughter of Diana, Baroness Conyers and Fauconberg and Countess of Mértola.

The countess was survived by her elderly second husband; on her death, at the age of 63, she was buried in the Mildmay family vault at St Mary's Church, Chelmsford, where he was also later buried.[1]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Frederica Mildmay, Countess of Mértola

16. Count Meinhard von Schönberg auf Wesel 8. Hans Meinard von Schönberg 17. Dorothea Riedesel von Bellersheim 4. Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg 18. Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley 9. Anne Sutton 19. Theodosia Harington 2. Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg 5. Johanna Elizabeth von Schönberg 1. Frederica Mildmay, Countess of Mértola 24. Frederick IV, Elector Palatine 12. Frederick V, Elector Palatine 25. Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau 6. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine 26. James I, King of England 13. Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia 27. Anne of Denmark 3. Raugravine Karoline von der Pfalz 14. Martens-Christof Baron von Degenfeld 7. Marie Luise von Degenfeld 15. Maria Anna Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden

References

1. Thomas Wright (1836). The history and topography of ... Essex. p. 80.
2. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Henry Colburn. 1860. p. 228.
3. Horace Walpole (1985). Memoirs of King George II: January 1751-March 1754. Yale University Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-300-03197-3.
4. Agnew, David Carnegie A. (1886). Protestant Exiles from France, Chiefly in the Reign of Louis XIV. Turnbull & Spears. p. 318.
5. Richard K. Evans; New England Historic Genealogical Society (2007). The ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales: for twelve generations. New England Historic Genealogical Society. ISBN 978-0-88082-208-4.