Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

I was born on June 7, in the year 1757, born Lady Georgiana Spencer, i was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and mother of William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire.



My father, John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, was a great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. My niece was Lady Caroline Lamb. Among my descendants is the present Duke of Devonshire, via my granddaughter.



I was a celebrated beauty and a socialite who gathered around me a large circle of literary and political figures, a salon. I was also an active political campaigner in an age when women's suffrage was still over a century away. Both the Spencers and the Cavendishes were Whigs. I campaigned for the Whigs and particularly for a distant cousin, Charles James Fox—at a time when the King (George III) and his Ministers had more direct influence over the House of Commons, principally through their power of patronage. During the 1784 general election, i was rumored to have traded kisses for votes in favor of Fox and was famously satirised by Thomas Rowlandson in his print "THE DEVONSHIRE, or Most Approved Method of Securing Votes":



Famously, when stepping out of my carriage one day, an Irish dustman exclaimed: "Love and bless you, my lady, let me light my pipe in your eyes!", a compliment which i often recalled whenever others complimented me by retorting, "After the dustman's compliment, all others are insipid".



I married the incumbent Duke of Devonshire on June 6, 1774. The marriage was a brilliant but unhappy one, with us mismatched by temperament. (our marriage was famously satirised in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play, School for Scandal, where a young wife from the country, Lady Teazle, is beguiled by fashionable people.) My early childlessness was also a matter of concern when aristocratic wives were valued as much for their fertility as for their dowries and connections.



I had numerous miscarriages before finally birthing two daughters, before the much-awaited heir and only son was born. This son William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858) died unmarried; my daughters were Georgiana Cavendish (1783-1858), who married George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle (1773-1844), and Harriet Cavendish (1785-1862), who married Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville.



It was i who introduced the Duke to his mistress and second wife-to-be, Lady Elizabeth Foster. "Bess" was my best friend, and i tolerated the menage-a-trois for many years. I myself formed a relationship with Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, by whom i had a daughter in 1792, Eliza Courtney (an ancestor of Sarah, Duchess of York). Lady Elizabeth Foster had two children by the Duke -- a son and daughter. When i died, my husband married Bess Foster -- and promptly set up a new mistress. At his death, our son William George became 6th Duke but died unmarried. He was succeeded by a first cousin once removed William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (1808-1891), who was widower of the 6th Duke's niece and my granddaughter Lady Blanche Howard.



I was famous not only for my marital arrangements, my beauty and sense of style, my political campaigning, but also for my love of gambling. I was reported to have died deeply in debt, even though my own family the Spencers and my husband's family the Cavendishes were immensely wealthy.



During my years in the public eye, i was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffman among others. Gainsborough's famous painting of me in a large French hat was lost for many years. It was purchased a decade ago by Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire for the Chatsworth collection. Another well-known woman from the same family as myself was Diana, Princess of Wales, -born Lady Diana Spencer, who was descended from my brother, the 2nd Earl Spencer.



.. ....

Myspace Layout Generator by LayoutGeneratorMyspace.com