Louisa Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

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Louisa Frederica Augusta Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire nee Countess Louisa Frederica Augusta von Alten (15 June 1832-15 July 1911) was born at Hannover, the daughter of Karl Franz Viktor Graf von Alten, a Hanoverian nobleman. On the 22 July 1852 she was married at Hannover to Viscount Mandeville, eldest son of the 6th Duke of Manchester. He succeeded his father as 7th Duke of Manchester on the 8 August 1855, and Louisa became Duchess of Manchester. One of the most noted beauties of her time, she was appointed Mistress of the Robes to the Queen on the 26 February 1858, and remained in that office until the fall of Lord Derby's government on 11 June 1859. The Duke of Manchester died at Naples on the 22 March 1890, and on the 16 August 1892 the sixty-year-old Dowager Duchess of Manchester married the 8th Duke of Devonshire, who had been in love with her for years. She thereby became Duchess of Devonshire; sometimes she is given the nickname "The Double Duchess". Widowed for the second time on the 24 March 1908, she died at Esher Park in Surrey on the 15 July 1911.

Preceded by The Duchess of Sutherland

Mistress of the Robes 1858–1859

Succeeded by The Duchess of Sutherland