Henrietta Berkeley

Lady Henrietta Berkeley (–1706) was an English aristocrat notorious for having an affair with her elder sister's husband, Lord Grey of Warke. The affair began in 1681 when Berkeley was not yet an adult and was discovered by her mother the following year. Berkeley was removed to the family seat at Epsom. She escaped and went into hiding in lodging houses in London, under the protection of Grey. Her father, George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley, sued her lover in a trial which became a sensation in 1682.

At the court of the King's Bench, Berkeley claimed to have left home with Grey of her own free will and also to have married William Turner, who was Grey's servant. After a scuffle with her father outside court, she was briefly imprisoned with Turner for her own safety. When Grey was implicated in the Rye House Plot the following year, the couple fled to Cleves, with Turner in their entourage. At the time, Berkeley was pregnant and it is not known if she returned to England with Grey for the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. She died in London in 1706.

Scandal Lady Henrietta Berkeley was born to Lady Elizabeth and George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley, in 1664 or later. She was one of six daughters and there were also two sons. At some point in 1681, Berkeley began an affair with Ford Grey, Lord Grey of Warke, who was married to her elder sister Lady Mary.

Lady Elizabeth banned the lovers from seeing each other and took Berkeley to the family seat at Durdans in Epsom, outside London. Lady Mary was also there and she invited her husband to visit, not knowing about his adultery. Lady Elizabeth had been too mortified to tell either Lady Mary or the Earl of Berkeley about the scandal and therefore was forced to host Grey for several days. When he left, Berkeley escaped from the house the same night and followed him back to London. judges = Sir Francis Pemberton italic title = no

The Earl of Berkeley sued Lord Grey and his accomplices for conspiring to debauch his daughter. The prosecution charged Grey with "inveigling the Lady Henrietta Berkeley away, and causing her to live an ungodly and profligate life, carrying her about from place to place, and obscuring her in secret places, to the displeasure of Almighty God, the utter ruin of the young lady, the evil example to others, offending against the king's peace, his crown and dignity". They travelled to Cleves (then part of Brandenburg-Prussia); afterwards, nothing can be said for certain about Berkeley's movements. It is unclear whether she returned to England soon afterwards or carried on living in Europe and only moved back much later. Grey returned to England as a leader of the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, then obtained a pardon from King James II, regaining his honours and later becoming 1st Earl of Tankerville.

Death and legacy Berkeley died on 10 August 1706 in Tonbridge, Kent. Although it is not clear if they were still lovers, Grey, who died in 1701, had left her a life annuity of . She left a sum of in her will, of which went to her niece Lady Elizabeth Germain.

Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister was a contemporary novel which drew on the events of the scandal and was published anonymously in 1684. It is believed to have been written by Aphra Behn. Later, in the 19th century, George William MacArthur Reynolds wrote that Berkeley "unfortunately sacrificed her good name and affections of doting parents at the instigations of a consummate scoundrel".