Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

Her Grace
The Duchess of Devonshire

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1775 The Devonshire Collection
Born 7 June 1757(1757-06-07)
Died 30 March 1806(1806-03-30) (aged 48)
Spouse William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire
Children 6th Duke of Devonshire,
Lady Georgiana Cavendish,
Lady Harriet Cavendish,
Eliza Courtney
Parents 1st Earl Spencer
Margaret Georgiana Poyntz

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire' (7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806), formerly Lady Georgiana Spencer, was the first wife of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, and mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Her father, the 1st Earl Spencer, was a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her niece was Lady Caroline Lamb. She is an ancestor (via her illegitimate daughter Eliza Courtney) of Sarah, the current Duchess of York. She is related to the Diana, Princess of Wales, who was her great-great-grandniece.

Contents

Life

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

Famously, when she was stepping out of her carriage one day, an Irish dustman exclaimed: "Love and bless you, my lady, let me light my pipe in your eyes!”, a compliment which she often recalled whenever others complimented her by retorting, "After the dustman's compliment, all others are insipid."[1][2]

In 1779, she anonymously published the epistolary novel The Sylph. The Duchess was also instrumental in formulating, with Thomas Beddoes, the idea of establishing a Pneumatic Institution in Bristol.[3]

Husband and children

Lady Georgiana Spencer married the Duke of Devonshire on her seventeenth birthday: 7 June 1774.

She had a number of miscarriages before giving birth to four children: three with her husband, and an illegitimate daughter fathered by the 2nd Earl Grey. She also raised the Duke's illegitimate daughter, Charlotte, who was conceived with a maid.

The Duchess introduced the Duke to her best friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster, and lived in a ménage à trois with them for the next 25 years. Lady Elizabeth had two children by the Duke, a son (Augustus William James Clifford) and a daughter (Caroline Rosalie St Jules).

Fashion and debt

The Duchess of Devonshire is famous not only for her marital arrangements, her catastrophic affairs, her beauty and sense of style and best clothes, and her political campaigning, but also for her love of gambling. Even though her own family, the Spencers, and her husband's family, the Cavendishes, were immensely wealthy, she was reported to have died deeply in debt because they did not give her any money. She died on 30 March 1806, aged 48, from what was thought to be an abscess of the liver; she was buried at All Saints Parish Church (which is now Derby Cathedral). At her death, she owed today's equivalent of £3,720,000.[4] The Duchess was so petrified of her husband discovering the extent of her debts that she kept them secret; the Duke only discovered the extent of her debts after her death and remarked, "Is that all?"[4]

During her years in the public eye, Georgiana was painted by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. Gainsborough's famous painting of her in a large black hat (a style which she made sensationally fashionable, and came to be known as the 'Gainsborough' or 'portrait' hat) was lost for many years. It had been stolen from a London art gallery by Adam Worth then somehow restored to Agnew's Art Gallery by William Pinkerton of the American detective agency Pinkerton's. It turned up again at Sotheby's a decade ago and was purchased by the 11th Duke of Devonshire for the Chatsworth collection.

Titles and styles

In popular culture

Contrary to popular belief, the play The School for Scandal was not written about the Duchess of Devonshire's scandalous affairs. Despite interacting with Sheridan, the playwright, the inspiration for the play's various characters came from actors Sheridan knew personally.

Film portrayals

Gallery

Ancestry

Further reading

References

  1. ^ "Beauty — A natural compliment", The Every-day Book and Table Book; or, Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs, and Events, Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Days, in Past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Months, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac, Including Accounts of the Weather, Rules for Health and Conduct, Remarkable and Important Anecdotes, Facts, and Notices, in Chronology, Antiquities, Topography, Biography, Natural History, Art, Science, and General Literature; Derived from the Most Authentic Sources, and Valuable Original Communication, with Poetical Elucidations, for Daily Use and Diversion. Vol III., ed. William Hone, (London: 1838) p 344. Retrieved on 2008-06-11
  2. ^ "The Disappearing Duchess", The New York Times, 31 July 1994. Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
  3. ^ Bergman, Norman A. (April 1998). "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Princess Diana: a parallel". J R Soc Med. 91 (4): 217–219. PMC 1296647. PMID 9659313. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1296647. 
  4. ^ a b Michael Hellicar (2008-08-29). "Diana and me - by Keira... or how movie marketers used the princess' troubled marriage to promote The Duchess". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1050403/Diana--Keira--movie-marketers-used-princess-troubled-marriage-promote-The-Duchess.html. Retrieved 2010-03-23.