Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, was a complicated lady. She was politically active, a progressive thinker, had an atrocious gambling habit that kept her perpetually in debt and suffered from an unfortunate, sometimes unhappy, marriage.
Did I mention she lived in the late 1700 and early 1800s?
“There was enough popular participation to make politics as big a national obsession as sport, if not bigger. The emergence of national newspapers turned politicians into celebrities.” pg 18 ebook.
And one of the brightest stars among them, was the Duchess of Devonshire.
“This was the age of oligarch politics, when the great landowning families enjoyed unchallenged pre-eminence in government. While the Lords sat in the chamber known as the Upper House, or the House of Lords, their younger brothers, sons, and nephews filled up most of the Lower House, known as the House of Commons.” pgs 22-23.
It wasn’t a particularly great age for democracy or for modern thought.
“Georgiana’s methods were too modern for eighteenth-century society. She was never allowed to canvass openly in London again, nor did other aristocratic women imitate her example. It would be another hundred years before women once more ventured boldly into street politics as Georgiana had not been afraid to do in 1784.”pgs 178-179, ebook
1784!
“She felt that she had the same qualities as a man; it was simply her sex, not her capability, which barred her from taking part in politics.” pg 346.
Imagine that. 🙂
The leaders of the Whig party, Georgiana’s political friends, were brilliant but flawed.
Eighteenth-century England was full of wits, connoisseurs, orators, historians, drinkers, gamblers, rakes, and pranksters, but only (Charles James) Fox embodied all these things.” pg 75, ebook.
I confess, though this book has extraordinary detail and research about Georgiana’s political activities, I found her personal life far more fascinating.
Her marriage may have been doomed from the start: “The Duke did not know how to be romantic; never having experienced tenderness himself he was incapable of showing it to Georgiana. He did not mean to hurt her, but there was a nine-year age difference between them and a gulf of misunderstanding and misplaced expectations.” pg 49, ebook.
There was another woman, who may or may not have been both Georgiana and the Duke of Devonshire’s lover. There were multiple handsome men who entered and exited Georgiana’s life.
She even had an illegitimate child with one of them.
A fascinating biography of an extraordinary lady – highly recommended.
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