Catherine Hyde, Duchess of Queensbury

Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry (; 1701 – 17 July 1777) was an English noblewoman.

Biography Catherine Hyde, often called "Kitty", was the second daughter of Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon, and his wife, the former Jane Leveson-Gower. She served as a Lady of the Bedchamber at the court of Queen Anne. Catherine married Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, on 10 March 1720. The couple had two sons and lived much of the time at Douglas House, Petersham, now part of London and at Queensberry House in Edinburgh. The duchess was known for her beauty and fashion sense.

In 1728, she was banished from court by King George II for being too forward, after petitioning the king and queen on behalf of John Gay, whose satirical play Polly had been refused a licence. In her later years, she attracted attention for dressing in the same fashion as in her youth, which was considered eccentric, refusing 'to cut and curl my hair like a sheep's head, or wear one of their trolloping sacks'.

The duchess was a friend to many members of the English and Scottish literary community, including Gay, William Congreve, James Thompson, Alexander Pope, Matthew Prior, and William Whitehead. Many of these literary friends placed references to her in their poems and other works; Ramsay wrote a poem on the departure of Katherine, Duchess of Queensberry, from Scotland in 1734. was given to the duchess by the Royal Navy captain Stair Douglas, a relative of hers, and she manumitted him. He was renamed after Charles, Prince of Soubise by the duchess. Soubise became the riding and fencing master to the duchess. He became a popular acquaintance of young noblemen and rose as a figure in upper-class social circles, becoming the member of many fashionable clubs such as the Thatched House Club. It was rumoured that his relationship with the Duchess developed into a sexual one.

William Austin's 1773 satirical print, The Duchess of Queensbury and Soubise shows the pair engaged in a fencing match. These accounts were satirized by Austin in a way which addresses Soubise and the duchess' uncustomary relationship, depicting Soubise as Mungo, a blackface servant character from Charles Dibdin and Isaac Bickerstaffe's play The Padlock. In the print, text shows Soubise saying, "Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo every where; Above and below. Hah! Vat your gracy tink of me now?,” direct lines from the Mungo character. This work has reappeared historically under several titles, including "The Eccentric Duchess of Queensbury fencing with her protégé the Creole Soubise (otherwise 'Mungo')” and "The Duchess of Queensberry playing at foils with her favorite Lap Dog Mungo after Expending near £10,000 to make him a—.”