Frederica Mildmay, Countess of Mértola


Frederica Susanna Mildmay, Countess FitzWalter, 3rd Countess of Mértola was a British peeress.

Life

Frederica was the eldest surviving daughter, and co-heir, of Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, and his second wife, Raugravine Caroline Elisabeth, 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:
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, she married Hon. Benjamin Mildmay, who was later created Earl FitzWalter in 1730. They had one child, who died in infancy.
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, due to her descent from her grandfather Charles I Louis's morganatic marriage to Marie Luise von Degenfeld. Her cognatic heir is Anthea Theresa Lycett, 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.