Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire: Difference between revisions

Her Grace The Duchess of Devonshire
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1775, The Devonshire Collection
Personal details
Born	Georgiana Spencer (1757-06-07)7 June 1757 Althorp, Northamptonshire
Died	30 March 1806(1806-03-30) (aged 48) Devonshire House, London
Resting place	Derby Cathedral
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (m. 1774–1806; her death)
Children	Georgiana Howard, Countess of Carlisle Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire Eliza Courtney
Parent(s)	John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer Georgiana Spencer, Countess Spencer

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Spencer; /dʒɒrˈdʒeɪnə/ jor-JAY-nə; 7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806) was an English socialite, style icon, author, and activist. Of noble birth from the House of Spencer, married into the House of Cavendish, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, and the mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire.

As the 5th Duchess of Devonshire, she garnered much attention and fame in society during her lifetime. With a preeminent position in the peerage of England, the duchess was famous for her beauty, charisma, and leading fashion and style; political campaigning; emotionally and psychologically conflicting marital arrangements and love affairs; and socializing and gambling.

She was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. Their lives, centuries apart, have been compared in tragedy in contemporary time.

Early life and family

A young Miss Georgiana Spencer with her mother, Margaret Georgiana Spencer. Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds

The duchess was born as Miss Georgiana Spencer, on 7 June 1757, as the first child of John Spencer (later Earl Spencer) and his wife, Margaret Georgiana Spencer (Mrs John Spencer; later Countess Spencer), at the Spencer family home, Althorp. After her daughter's birth, her mother wrote that "I will own I feel so partial to my Dear little Gee, that I think I never shall love another so well". Two younger siblings followed: Henrietta and George. (A niece later birthed by Henrietta, Lady Caroline Lamb, would become a writer and lover of Lord Byron). Mr John Spencer came from a most wealthy and storied English noble family: he was a great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was wealthy, and had built a Spencer family residence at St. James, London, where he would raise his children. Married out of genuine love, the parents raised Georgiana and her siblings in a wholesome marriage which bears no record of there ever having been any extramarital affairs - a rarity in the era. Meanwhile, Georgiana grew to be close to her mother who was said to favour Georgiana over her other children.

When her father assumed the title of Viscount Spencer in 1761, she became The Honourable Georgiana Spencer. In 1765, her father became Earl Spencer and she Lady Georgiana Spencer. As a teenager, she was shy.

Marriage and children

With her siblings, Henrietta and George, by Angelica Kauffman, c. 1774. The painting was painted just before Georgiana's marriage to the Duke of Devonshire

On her seventeenth birthday, 7 June 1774, Lady Georgiana Spencer was married to society's most eligible bachelor, the 5th Duke of Devonshire (aged 25) of the House of Cavendish, at the Wimbledon Parish Church; she became Her Grace the Duchess of Devonshire.. It was a small ceremony in which only her parents, her maternal grandmother (Lady Cowper), her soon-to-be brother-in-law (Lord Cavendish), and soon-to-be sister-in-law (the Duchess of Portland) attended. Her parents were emotionally reluctant in letting their daughter go, but she was wed to one of the wealthiest (about three times more so then her father) and most powerful man in the land. Her father, who had always shown affection to his children, wrote to her, "My Dearest Georgiana, I did not know till lately how much I loved you; I miss you more every day and every hour." After leaving home, also, letters of correspondence between mother and daughter throughout their lives survive.

From the beginning of the marriage, the Duke of Devonshire proved to be an emotionally-reserved man who was quite unlike the duchess's father and who would not meet the emotional demands of the duchess as her husband. Furthermore, the spouses had too little in common. He would seldom be at her side and would even spend nights at Brook's playing cards until 5:00 in the morning. The duke continued to act upon his sexual urges and carried out adulterous acts throughout their married life. It didn't help that whenever he would sexually engage with her, the resulting pregnancies would end in miscarriages, hardships in producing an heir, and discord with the duke.

Before their marriage, the duke had fathered an illegitimate daughter, Charlotte Williams, born from a daliance, carried out while he was actually engaged with the duchess, with a former milliner, Charlotte Spencer (of no relation to the House of Spencer). This was unbeknownst to the duchess until years after marrying the duke, and she was compelled to raise Charlotte in the marriage, beginning in 1780, after the death of the child's mother. The duchess of Devonshire was "very pleased" with Charlotte as she cultivated motherly affection. However, her mother, now Countess Spencer, expressed dissapproval: "I hope you have not talk'd of her to people." The duchess replied, "She is the best humored little thing you ever saw."

In 1782, while on a retreat from London with the duke, the duchess met Lady Elizabeth Foster (widely known as "Bess") in the City of Bath. She became close friends with Lady Elizabeth who had been financially destitute after becoming separated from her husband and distanced from her two sons. Given the immediate bond developed with Lady Elizabeth (and the difficult position her new friend was in), with agreement from the Duke, the duchess took thrill in having her live with her. When an indefinite sexual relationship was begun by the duke with Lady Elizabeth, a love triangle was set with Lady Elizabeth arranged, by the duke, to live with them permanently. While it was common for male members of the upper class to have mistresses, it was not for the mistress to live so openly with the couple. The whole situation became a heartbreak to the duchess and a further humiliating and crippling circumstance for her and her marriage. Furthermore, the duchess had become emotionally dependent on Lady Elizabeth who she believed her as her best friend. With no alternative, she became complacent over the matter: "She had such low self-esteem that she allowed the situation to continue. She was desperate to please. That meant she was quite easily victimised." The arrangement between the three is more commonly referred to as a ménage à trois (refering in literal meaning to a "house of three"), but, while the relationship between the duke and Lady Elizabeth was obviously sexual, there is no concrete evidence over anything beyond emotional dependence, and a peculiar and open affection, in part of the duchess, towards Lady Elizabeth, along the lines of platonic love. In one of her letters, the Duchess of Devonshire wrote to Lady Elizabeth, "My dear Bess, Do you hear the voice of my heart crying to you? Do you feel what it is for me to be separated from you?" Nevertheless, Lady Elizabeth Foster herself was said to actually envy her and wished for her position. (Evidence Lady Elizabeth shared a love for her either way was proven at her death years later when a locket, containing a hairstrand of the duchess, was found around her neck, as well as a bracelet also containing hair of the duchess on a table beside her deathbed). Lady Elizabeth would also be reported to have actually cunningly weaseled her way into the marriage by having taken advantage of the duchess's friendship and love and having "engineered her way" into a sexually-attached relationship with the duke. Furthermore, Lady Elizabeth engaged in well documented sexual relations with other men while she was in the "love triangle" with the duke and duchess. The Countess Spencer expressed utter distaste for Lady Elizabeth. Amongst their contemporaries, the relationship between the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Elizabeth Foster was the subject of speculation which has continued beyond their time. The love triangle itself was a notorious topic; it was an irregular arrangement in a marriage of high profile. By her affair with the Duke, Lady Elizabeth Foster would bare two illegitimate children: a daughter, Caroline Rosalie St Jules, and a son, Augustus Clifford.

The Duchess of Devonshire by Thomas Gainsborough, 1783.

Despite her unhappiness with her detached and philandering husband and volatile marriage, the duchess, as per customs of the day, was not socially permitted to take a lover without first having produced an heir to her husband. The first successful pregnancy was finally fulfilled on 12 July 1783, but it did not produce a male heir; it was the birth of Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish, called "Little G", and who would become the Countess of Carlisle and birth issue of her own. The duchess had developed strong mothering sentiment since raising Charlotte, and she insisted on nursing her own children (contrary to the aristocratic custom of having a wet nurse). On 29 August 1785, a successful second pregnancy was once more achieved though yet again resulted in another daughter: Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, called "Harryo", and who would become Countess Granville and birth issue of her own as well. Finally, on 21 May 1790, the duchess's third successful pregnancy gave birth to a male heir to the dukedom: William George Spencer Cavendish, who took the title of Marquess of Hartington at birth, and was called "Hart". However, ironically, given the complications which transgressed in efforts to birth him as heir, he would go on to never marry, called "the bachelor duke", and produce no heir. Like his mother, he would be the subject of speculation over his close sentiments with the same sex though with no concrete evidence to support actual sexual relationships with men. With the birth of the Marquess of Hartington, the duchess was able to take on a lover. While there is no evidence of when the duchess began her romantic affair with Charles Grey (later Earl Grey), she did become pregnant by him in 1791. Sent off to France, the duchess believed she would die from childbirth. In this sentiment, she wrote a letter to her recent born male son stating, "As soon as you are old enough to understand this letter it will be given to you. It contains the only present I can make you--my blessing, written in my blood...Alas, I am gone before you could know me, but I lov'd you, I nurs'd you nine months at my breast. I love you dearly." On 20 February 1792, Eliza Courtney was born without complications to mother and child, and the duchess was forced to give away the illegitimate daughter to Grey's family. The duchess would later be given the opportunity to pay visits to her illegitimate daughter, providing her with presents and affection, and Eliza would grow up to marry Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Ellice and birth a daughter named Georgiana as well.

While in exile in France in the early-1790s, the Duchess of Devonshire suffered from isolation and separation from her children. To her eldest, she wrote, "Your letter dated the 1st of Nov was delightful to me tho' it made me very melancholy my Dearest Child. This year has been the most painful of my life. . . when I do return to you, never leave you I hope again--it will be too great a happiness for me Dear Dear Georgiana & it will have been purchased by many days of regret--indeed ev'ry hour I pass away from you, I regret you; if I amuse myself or see anything I admire I long to share the happiness with you--if on the contrary I am out of spirits I wish for your presence which alone would do me good." In order to return to England and her children, she conceded to denounce her strong love for Charles Grey by the hypocritical demands of her husband. Records of her exile in France were subsequently erased from the family records at the dukedom of Devonshire. However, it is determinable that the children of the duke and duchess had at one point been informed as to the reason of her absence during that period of their lives.

The duchess, to the duke ("whose carnal tastes included fornicating upstairs and down and who thought nothing of bedding his wife's best friend"), had only ever majorly provided complications from her prolonged inability to produce an heir and from her gambling apart from his inability to bond with her. Sometime during the first sixteen years of their marriage, he had even asked to be separated from her while he continued to enjoy intimate company elsewhere.

Throughout her marriage, while the Duchess of Devonshire coped with the marital arrangements on the surface, she nevertheless suffered internal emotional and psychological distress; the duchess "found consolation in the outpouring of public affection when it [had become] obvious that her marriage to William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, would never deliver her longed-for dream of happy-ever-after." She sought further personal consolance from a "dissipated existence" in passions (e.g. socializing, fashion, politics, writing), addictions (gambling, drinking, and drugs), and affairs (with a number of men more that just Grey and which also may have included the bachelor Duke of Dorset). Eating disorders were also alledged.

Pursuits and fame

With her renowned beauty and character, alongside her marriage to the affluent and powerful Duke of Devonshire, the duchess enjoyed preeminence in society and was a high emblem of the era. Her keen sense made her the extravagant female leader in fashion and style in England. (The fashionable styling of just her hair alone would even literally reach extraordinary heights above her exuberant dressings). With her influence as a leading socialite and fashion/style icon, she furthermore contributed to politics, science, and literature. Of her illustrious social engagements, she would also gather around her a large salon of literary and political figures. Among her major acquaintances were the most influential figures of her time in society including the Prince of Wales (later King George IV); Marie Antoinette of France and her favorite in court, the Duchess of Polignac; Charles Grey (later Earl Grey and British Prime Minister); and Lady Melbourne (lover of the Prince of Wales). Newspapers chronicled her every appearances and activities.

She was called a "phenomenon" by Horace Walpole who proclaimed, "[she] effaces all without being a beauty; but her youthful figure, flowing good nature, sense and lively modesty, and modest familiarity make her a phenomenon". Madame d'Arblay, who had preference for acquiantances of talent, found that her appeal was not generally for her beauty but for far more which included fine "manner, politeness, and gentle quiet." Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall, of his own critique, stated that her success as an individual laid "in the amenity and graces of her deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her society."

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!" Then after, whenever others would compliment her, the duchess would retort, "After the dustman's compliment, all others are insipid."

Politics

See also: Whigs (British political party)

The House of Spencer, from which she derived, was an ardent supporter of the Whig party as was she and the House of Cavendish. However, because the duke's high position in the peerage disallowed him to participate so commonly in politics, the duchess took it as a positive outlet for herself. In an age when the realization of women's rights and suffrage was still more than a century away, the duchess became a political activist as the first woman to make active and influential frontline appearances on the political scene. Having begun her involvement in politics in 1778 (when she generated a mass of women to promote the Whig party), she relished Enlightenment and Whig party ideals and would take it upon herself to campaign — particularly for a distant cousin, Charles James Fox, who was chief party leader alongside Richard Sheridan — for Whig policies which were anti-crown and advotated for liberty against tyranny. At the time of her involvement, King George III (who detested the Whigs) and his ministers had a direct influence over the House of Commons, principally through their power of patronage. The Prince of Wales, who always relished going against the grain with his father, joined the Whig party at the time his friend, the duchess, became involved. Political meetings over dinners as hostess were renowned and she took joy in cultivating the company of brilliant radicals.

"THE DEVONSHIRE, or Most Approved Method of Securing Votes", by Thomas Rowlandson, 1784

During the general election of 1784, the duchess became a major subject of scrutiny. Fanciful rumours and political cartoons went about ridiculing her as going about indecent ways as a woman by exchanging sexual - and monetary - rewards for votes. Thomas Rowlandson even satirized her with a rumour of her trading kisses in his print "THE DEVONSHIRE, or Most Approved Method of Securing Votes". Her mother pleaded her to step down, but the duchess was not daunted and was adamant in her activism. On election day, the Duchess of Devonshire walked the streets of London, even gaining blisters on her feet, meeting face-to-face with commoners as equals. She was instrumental in the success of Fox and Lord Hood, but after the extensive campaigning and negative media against her, and she retired, after the win, from the political arena for a while. In 1788, she returned to political activism though behind the scenes.

Even in the last years of her life, she pushed ahead in the field and even attempted to help rebuild the Whig party which had become fragmented; it came to no avail, and the political party would eventually come to dissolve decades after her death.

Literature

See also: The Sylph

In her life, the duchess was an avid writer and composed a number of works, of both prose and poetry, of which some were published.

She composed poetry as a young girl to her father and some of it later circulated in manuscript and even read by Warpole (who said it was "easy and prettily expressed, though it does not express much") and Reverend William Mason (who was more favorable with higher opinions).

The first of her published literary work was Emma; Or, The Unfortunate Attachment: A Sentimental Novel in 1773.

In 1778, the epistolary novel The Sylph was released. Published purposefully anonymously, it was written autobiographical, centered on a fictional bride in aristocracy who's been corrupted, and as "a novel-cum-exposé of [the duchess's] aristocratic cohorts, depicted as libertines, blackmailers, and alcoholics." It has been speculated that The Sylph may have instead been written by Sophia Briscoe, and a receipt at the British Library suggests that Briscoe was paid for the published work. However, it is thought more likely that Briscoe may have served as an intermediary between the Duchess of Devonshire and her publisher, so that the duchess could keep her anonymity. The duchess is said to have at least privately admitted to her authorship. The Sylph was a success and underwent four reprintings.

Memorandums of the Face of the Country in Switzerland was first published in 1799.

One more piece was published in the last years of her life, The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard in 1802. A poem dedicated to her children, The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard was furthermore translated into some of the main languages of Western Europe including into French, by the Abbé de Lille, in 1802; Italian, by Signor Polidori, in 1803; and German in 1805. The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard was then reprinted in 1816, after the duchess's death, alogn with Memorandums of the Face of the Country in Switzerland.

The 5th Duchess of Devonshire was connected to some of the best men of letters of her time, and Samuel Johnson, a famed writer of the era, had even paid visit to the duke and duchess, in 1784, at their Chatsworth home.

Science

The duchess also played a key role in formulating, with Thomas Beddoes, the idea of establishing the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. Her interest arose in part as she was related through marriage to the pneumatic chemist Henry Cavendish.

She also took interest in scientific experiments and began a collection of crystals at Chatsworth, the main seat of the dukedom of Devonshire.

Gambling

As with the aristocracy of her time, the duchess was a passionate participator in gambling games for social leisure and fun. However, it spiraled out into a ruinous stressful addiction underpinned by emotional instability.

During the first years of her marriage, she was accumulating debts which surpassed the 4,000 pounds which the Duke of Devonshire provided her annually as pin money. Her own mother was disapproving and would unsuccessfully advised her to take heed. After a moment in which she incurred beyond 300,000 pounds in debt, the duchess implored her parents to give her a loan as she absolutely would not inform her husband of her debts. Her parents acquiesced and told her to inform the duke who nevertheless found out beforehand and repaid them.

Throughout the subsequent years of her life, the duchess of Devonshire amassed an abhorrent, ever-escalating debt which she always tried to keep hidden from her husband (despite he being among the richest men in the land), and when she would admit to some, it was always less that the reality which even she could not keep up with. In confidence, she would ask for loans from the Prince of Wales and at one point, to try to settle some of her debts, she would even take benefit from her compelling friendship bestowed upon the affluent banker Thomas Coutts.

Later life and death

Her absence from English society and exile in France had isolated the duchess in sorrow and was a low point for her in every respect; she returned to England as a "changed woman". The duke soon enough began suffering from gout, and she spent her time at his side nursing him. With also a new miscarriage, this circumstance with her husband brought about a softening and closeness between the spouses. She took a positive interest in science; took up writing again (producing two more works); and she even continued her activism into politics while trying to rebuild the Whig party (to no avail before its end). The duchess also came to meet and become friends with the wife her former lover, Charles Grey, took as wife. In 1796, the Duchess of Devonshire had succumb to illness in one eye; the treatment of the doctors resulted in a scarring of her face. However, "Those scars released her from her fears. All the inhibitions about whether she was beautiful enough or whether she was up to the job left her." In her late-30s, the duchess was able to regain preeminence and enjoyment in open society though her personal life would continue to be marred by degrees of unhappiness, debt, and decline in health.

By her early-40s, the Duchess of Devonshire devoted her time to the coming out of her eldest daughter, Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish. The debutante was presented in 1800, and the duchess saw daughter wed the heir apparent of Earl Carlisle, Lord Morph, in 1801; it was the first and only time the Duchess of Devonshire saw one of her issue marry.

Her health continued degrade well into her 40s. Her addiction to gambling continued, and she once reached out to her mother begging for a sum of a hundred pounds and also complained to her of jaundice. While her mother at first believed her daughter was just ill from her gambling, Countess Spencer, as well as those around the duchess, soon came to realize she was truly sick. She was thought to be suffering from an abscess on her liver.

Georgiana Cavendish, 5th Duchess of Devonshire died on 30 March 1806, at 3:30, at the age 48. She was surrounded by her husband, the 5th Duke of Devonshire; her mother, Countess Spencer; her sister, Countess of Bessborough; her eldest daughter, Lady Morph (who was eight months pregnant); and Lady Elizabeth Foster. They were all said to have been inconsolable over her death. For the first time, the duke showed moving emotion towards his late wife, as a contemporary wrote, "The Duke has been most deeply affected and has shown more feeling than anyone thought possible--indeed every individual in the family are in a dreadful state of affliction." The late duchess's eldest daughter furthermore poured, "Oh my beloved, my adored departed mother, are you indeed forever parted from me--Shall I see no more that angelic countenance or that blessed voice--You whom I loved with such tenderness, you who were the . . . best of mothers, Adieu--I wanted to strew violets over her dying bed as she strewed sweets over my life but they would not let me." Her distant cousin for whom she had triumphantly campaigned for, Charles James Fox, was noted to have cried. The Prince of Wales himself lamented, "The best natured and the best bred woman in England is gone." Thousands of the people of London congregated at Piccadily, where the Cavendish home in the city was located, to mourn her. She was buried at the family vault at All Saints Parish Church (now Derby Cathedral) in Derby.

Legacy

Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785–87.

The legacy of the life of Georgiana Cavendish, 5th Duchess of Devonshire, has remained a topic of study and intrigue in cultural and historical spheres centuries after her death.

Immediately after her death, the Duke of Devonshire discovered the extent of her debt - the duchess died owing an estimated 2008 equivalent of £3,720,000 - and remarked, "Is that all?...." He soon enough married Lady Elizabeth Foster who, as his second wife, became Duchess of Devonshire. The children of the 5th Duchess of Devonshire were discontent with the marriage as they never liked Lady Elizabeth at all (something which caused dismay with their mother when she was alive). When William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, died on 29 July 1811, the Marquess of Hartington became 6th Duke of Devonshire. He sought to liquidate his late mother's entire debts. Meanwhile, Lady Elizabeth fought to keep Cavendish properties to which she wasn't even entitled to and was furthermore denied by the 6th Duke of Devonshire her demand that her illegitimate son with the 5th Duke of Devonshire, Clifford, bear the Cavendish crest. Infuriated, Lady Elizabeth brought back up her affair with the 5th Duke of Devonshire by publicly announcing he had sired her illegitimate children. The 6th Duke of Devonshire finally oversaw an end to it all - the mistake of his late mother of bringing in Lady Elizabeth into her life and all consequences which resulted - with the final dismissal of Lady Elizabeth by paying her off. Nevertheless, the children of Georgiana Cavendish, 5th Duchess of Devonshire, lived the remainder of their lives with mutually positive relations with the children of Lady Elizabeth Foster, having grown up together.

In 1786, Susanna Rowson, who went on to become a bestselling author, dedicated her first published work, Victoria, to the Duchess of Devonshire.

With the topic of liberation at the heart of policies she supported in life, the bold involvement of the Duchess of Devonshire in political activism pioneered women's public frontstage and influential participation in the field in a time before the validation of women's rights and subsequent feminist ideals.

Artwork focused on the Duchess of Devonshire by reputable painters of the Georgian era remain; this includes a 1787 work by the famed Thomas Gainsborough which was once through lost. Over a thousand of personal letters written by the Duchess of Devonshire remain in existence. Chatsworth, the exant seat of the dukedom of Devonshire, houses a majority of her letters in historical archives.

In modern time, the circumstances of her life are furthermore observed as an example of female oppression by historical cultural and legal constructs favoring male interests, while denying rights to the female party, in a relationship, and they have become the subject of scholarly and dramatized works.

Comparisons to Diana, Princess of Wales

See also: Diana, Princess of Wales

After the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the 5th Duchess of Devonshire, who was her great-great-great-great-aunt within the House of Spencer, has been the subject of comparisons of both women's lives centuries apart. Noted incidental similarities in their lives of tragedy include being women of noble birth in the peerage of England who were once shy and kind-hearted; married young, expecting a happy marriage, in an illustrious match to an older husband who would prove distant and difficult and who would seek extramarital comfort elsewhere; a high-profile and negatively affecting love triangle; looked up to for their character and style; being activists; and an equivalent intense scrutiny of the public and the media in their respective lifestimes. Both also experienced detriment while off, having fled from England, in France: the duchess was exiled to the country give birth, and Diana on holiday from the woes back home. However, while the duchess had a feeling she would die (of childbirth) in France, she did not; the Princess of Wales herself naturally had no inkling she would and did. There, their lives are said veer differently when "Diana’s tragic end denied her the chance to rebuild her life" unlike the duchess who gained such opportunity after having returned to England from France. Modern biographer Amanda Foreman stated, "You can’t deny there are extraordinary comparisons. Like Diana, Georgiana had that ability to make people feel special. But she had a dark side which became all-destroying."

The latest film to portray the Duchess of Devonshire, The Duchess (2008), made noted use of the comparisons in marketing for the film.

Film portrayals

• The Divine Lady (1929), portrayed by Evelyn Hall.
• Berkeley Square (1933), portrayed by Juliette Compton
• The House in the Square (also titled "I'll Never Forget You" (US) and "Man of Two Worlds") (1951), portrayed by Kathleen Byron
• The Duchess (2008), portrayed by Keira Knightley. The film, directed by Saul Dibb, is based on the biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.

Works by Georgiana Cavendish

• Emma; Or, The Unfortunate Attachment: A Sentimental Novel (1773)
• The Sylph (1778)
• Memorandums of the Face of the Country in Switzerland (1799)
• The Passage of the Mountain of Saint Gothard (1803)

Titles and styles

• 7 June 1757 – 3 April 1761 : Miss Georgiana Spencer
• 3 April 1761 – 1 November 1765 : The Honourable Georgiana Spencer
• 1 November 1765 – 7 June 1774 : Lady Georgiana Spencer
• 7 June 1774 – 30 March 1806 : Her Grace The Duchess of Devonshire

Gallery

• 
  The Duchess of Devonshire by Lady Diana Beauclerk, c. 1779
• 
  The Duchess of Devonshire by John Downman, c. 1780
• 
  The Duchess of Devonshire by Joshua Reynolds, c. 1780–81
• 
  The Duchess of Devonshire by Joshua Reynolds, 1786
• 
  Elizabeth "Bess" Hervey Foster by Sir Joshua Reynolds
• 
  Georgiana's husband, William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire

Ancestry

Family of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

16. Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland 8. Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland 17. Lady Anne Digby 4. The Hon. John Spencer 18. John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough 9. Lady Anne Churchill 19. Sarah Jennings 2. John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer 20. George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret 10. John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville 21. Lady Grace Granville, 1st Countess Granville 5. Lady Georgiana Carolina Carteret 22. Sir Robert Worsley, 4th Baronet, of Appuldurcombe 11. Frances Worsley 23. Frances Thynne 1. Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire 24. Newdigate Poyntz 12. William Poyntz 25. Mary Parkyns 6. Stephen Poyntz 26. Stephen Monteage 13. Jane Monteage 27. Jane Deane 3. Margaret Georgiana Poyntz 28. John Mordaunt, 1st Viscount Mordaunt 14. The Hon. Lewis Mordaunt 29. Elizabeth Carey 7. Anna Maria Mordaunt 30. Thomas Collyer 15. Mary Collyer 31. Mary Lunsford

References

Works cited

• Cavendish, Georgiana (2007). Gross, Jonathan (ed.). The Sylph. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-2229-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Foreman, Amanda (1998). Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire. Random House. ISBN 0375502947. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Foreman, Amanda (2004). "Cavendish, Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire (1757–1806)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4934. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Gleeson, Janet (2008). Privilege and Scandal: The Remarkable Life of Harriet Spencer, Sister of Georgiana. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 9780307381989. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Brian Masters, Hamish Hamilton, 1981.
• Georgiana, The Earl of Bessborough (editor), John Murray, London, 1955.
• Some Old Time Beauties by Thomson Willing Featuring a different version of her picture as well as written material on her reputation.
• The Two Duchesses.., Family Correspondence relating to.., Vere Foster (editor), Blackie & Son, London, Glasgow & Dublin, 1898.
• An Aristocratic Affair - The life of Georgiana's sister Harriet, Countess Bessborough, Janet Gleeson, 2006, ISBN 0-593-05487-3
• Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, The Sylph, ed. Jonathan David Gross (Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 2007),

External links

• Works by Georgiana Cavendish at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire at the Internet Archive