Amanda Foreman - The Duchess

As the marriage approached Georgiana’s faults became an obsession with her mother, who feared that her daughter did not understand the responsibilities which would come with her new role: ‘I had flatter’d myself I should have had more time to have improv’d her understanding and, with God’s assistance to have strengthened her principles, and enabled her to avoid the many snares that vice and folly will throw in her way. She is amiable, innocent and benevolent, but she is giddy, idle and fond of dissipation.’ 49 Whenever they were apart, Lady Spencer criticized Georgiana’s behaviour in long letters filled with ‘hints to form your own conduct … when you are so near entering into a world abounding with dissipation, vice and folly’. 50 In one, she included a list of rules governing a married woman’s behaviour on Sundays. Georgiana would have to rise early, pray, instruct the children or servants, then read an improving book, and above all ‘make it a rule to be among the first [to church], and to shew by my good humour and attention to everybody that I saw nothing in religion or a Sunday to make people silent, ill-bred or uncomfortable …’ Flirting and gossip were to be absolutely avoided on this day. 51

Most observers shared Lady Spencer’s disquiet, although not for the same reason.

We drank tea in the Spring Gardens [recorded Mary Hamilton in her diary]: Lady Spencer and daughter, Lady Georgiana, and the Duke of Devonshire joined us: he walked between Lady Georgiana and I, we were very Chatty, but not one word spoke the Duke to his betrothed nor did one smile grace his dull visage. – Notwithstanding his rank and fortune I wd not marry him – they say he is sensible and has good qualities – it is a pity he is not more ostensibly agreeable, dear charming Lady Georgiana will not be well matched. 52

Mrs Delany had come to a similar conclusion. She happened to be at a ball in May where Georgiana danced for so long that she fainted from the heat and the constriction of her dress – ‘Which of course made a little bustle,’ she informed her friend. ‘His (philosophical) Grace was at the other end of the room and ask’d “what’s that?” They told him and he replied with his usual demureness (alias dullness), “I thought the noise – was – among – the – women. ”’ He did not even make a pretence of going over to where Georgiana lay to see how she was. 53

Meanwhile the Spencers assembled a trousseau more lavish than those of many princesses on the Continent. In three months they spent a total of £1,486 on hundreds of items: sixty-five pairs of shoes filled one trunk, forty-eight pairs of stockings and twenty-six ‘and a half’ pairs of gloves filled another. 54 They bought hats, feathers and trimmings; morning dresses, walking dresses, riding habits and ball gowns. There was her wedding dress to be made, her court dress, her first visiting dress, as well as cloaks, shawls and wraps. The prospect of a union between two such wealthy and powerful families naturally caught the attention of the press – there had been no Duchess of Devonshire for over two decades. People described the marriage as the wedding of the year and anticipated that the new Duchess of Devonshire would revive the former splendour of Devonshire House. The Whig grandees also looked upon the match with favour, hoping that the married state would have a beneficial effect on the Duke.

The wedding took place on 7 June 1774, two days earlier than the official date. There had been so much publicity about the marriage that the Spencers feared the church would be mobbed with curious onlookers. They persuaded the Duke to accompany them to Wimbledon Park and have the service conducted in the parish church there. According to Mrs Delany, Georgiana knew nothing of their plans until the morning of the ceremony. She did not mind at all; a secret marriage appealed to her. ‘She is so peculiarly happy as to think his Grace very agreeable ’ and, to Mrs Delany’s surprise, ‘had not the least regret’ about anything. She wore a white and gold dress, with silver slippers on her feet and pearl drops in her hair. There were only five people present: the Duke’s brother, Lord Richard Cavendish, and his sister Dorothy, who was now the Duchess of Portland, and on Georgiana’s side only her parents and grandmother, Lady Cowper. 55 Georgiana’s feelings clearly showed on her face, while the Duke appeared inscrutable. His new wife may have occupied his thoughts, although they may well have turned to another Spencer. Not very far away in a rented villa, on a discreet road where a carriage could come and go unseen, Charlotte Spencer, formerly a milliner and no relation to the Spencers, was nursing a newborn baby: his – their – daughter Charlotte. 56

*Misspellings have been corrected only where they intrude on the text.

†Georgiana became Lady Georgiana Spencer at the age of eight when her father John Spencer was created the first Earl Spencer in 1765. For the purpose of continuity the Spencers will be referred to as Lord and Lady throughout.

*The usual method for estimating equivalent twentieth-century values is to multiply by sixty.

*The Spencers originally came from Warwickshire, where they farmed sheep. They were successful businessmen and with each generation the family grew a little richer. By 1508 John Spencer had saved enough capital to purchase the 300-acre estate of Althorp. He also acquired a coat of arms and a knighthood from Henry VIII. His descendants were no less diligent, and a hundred years later, when Robert Spencer was having his portrait painted for the saloon, he was at the head of one of the richest farming families in England. King James I, who could never resist an attractive young man, gave him a peerage and a diplomatic post to the court of Duke Frederick of Wurttemberg. From then on the Spencers left farming to their agents and concentrated on court politics.

*His father, the Hon. John Spencer, was in fact a younger son and, given the law of primogeniture, had always expected to marry his fortune or live in debt. However, his mother was the daughter of the first Duke of Marlborough, and the Marlboroughs had no heir. To prevent the line from dying out the Marlboroughs obtained special dispensation for the title to pass through the female line. John’s older brother Charles became the next Duke. John, meanwhile, became head of the Spencer family and subsequently inherited Althorp. Charles had inherited the title but, significantly, he had no right to the Marlborough fortune until his grandmother Duchess Sarah, the widowed Duchess of Marlborough, died. Except for Blenheim Palace, she could leave the entire estate to whomever she chose. Sarah had strong political beliefs and she was outraged when Charles disobeyed her instruction to oppose the government of the day. In retribution she left Marlborough’s £1 million estate to John, with the sole proviso that neither he nor his son should ever accept a government post.

*My heart is yours. Keep it well.

*Political life had not suited the reserved and honest Duke. But for the rivalry between Henry Fox and William Pitt, neither of whom would support a government with the other as its leader, George 11 would not have chosen this ‘amiable, straightforward man’, who was noted ‘for common sense rather than statesmanship’. The Duke shared with Lord Spencer, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship, a total lack of aptitude for the bravado of parliamentary politics. Dr Johnson said of him, ‘If he promised you an acorn, and none had grown that year in his woods, he would have sent to Denmark for it.’ But if asked to formulate a strategy for dealing with the French he sat there helplessly, waiting for someone to suggest an idea. He only participated in government out of a sense of duty and the effort it cost him ruined his health and destroyed his peace of mind.