The Duchess

by Amanda Foreman

  The King’s special session began in an atmosphere of belligerence on all sides, the mood of the Third Estate having been determined by the guards, who forced them to stand in the rain for an hour while the nobles (the First Estate) and clergy (the Second Estate) seated themselves first. Louis XVI did offer a compromise which entailed limiting some of the monarchy’s powers, but he remained firm against the Third Estate’s other demands: in particular, there would be no union of the three Estates. The nobles were to retain their privileges unless they themselves removed them by separate vote. He declared all the proceedings conducted by the Third Estate since May null and void, and then ordered the deputies to disperse until the next day. Georgiana summed up the futility of the meeting in a letter to her mother: “the King . . . made a speech to the tiers telling them they must desist from their proceedings. After he went, there they staid and voted to annul everything he had done and said.”5

  On June 25, three days after the Devonshires had settled at their hotel, there was a revolt among the upper Estates, and the majority of the clergy and about fifty nobles, led by the Duc d’Orléans, formerly the Duc de Chartres, joined the Third Estate. “The ferment at Paris is beyond conception,” wrote Arthur Young. “10,000 people have been all this day in the Palais-Royal. . . . every hour that passes seems to give the people fresh spirit: the meetings at the Palais-Royal are more numerous, more violent, and more assured. . . . the language that was talked, by all ranks of people, was nothing less than a revolution in the government, and the establishment of a free constitution.”6

  Georgiana’s experience of the London mob meant that at first she regarded the sporadic rioting around her as more of a nuisance than a danger. She told Lady Spencer that they had planned to go to Versailles on June 24 but “the tumults encrease so much at Versailles that our going would be troublesome.” Her insouciance was a peculiarly English trait which the French, never having witnessed a county election, found baffling. “I could not resist making the D of Devonshire take Bess, Cha. and I to see the Palais Royal,” she wrote; “there were great rejoicings.”7 Lady Sutherland, writing from the British embassy, admitted that she would like to go to Spa but that her husband, Lord Gower, “likes a riot in his heart” and he insisted they stay so he could join in with the crowds.8 Thomas Jefferson, the American ambassador, expressed his alarm quite openly: “Yesterday at Versailles the mob was violent; they insulted, and even attacked all the clergy and nobility that are known to be strenuous for preserving the separation of Orders. . . . The confusion is so great, that the court have only the troops to depend on.”9

  Within a few days Georgiana and Bess had received visits from most members of the Paris ton and all the city’s tradesmen. “I am overwhelm’d with stay makers,” Georgiana laughed.10 Ironically, considering the social apartheid she had helped to create at home, she received her French friends on a non-political basis, merely making sure that members of the court party arrived at different times to the “patriots,” so that the Princesse de Lamballes could drink tea without fear of running into the Duc d’Orléans. At times this impartiality took on a comic aspect. When Georgiana and Bess went to the Opéra they had to alternate between sharing a box with the Comte d’Artois one night and with his arch rival, the Duc d’Orléans, the next. “You have no need to fear the Duke of Dorset,” Georgiana promised her mother, who had written of her concern. “The complexion of the times is such that we can scarcely see him at all.”11 In any case, Dorset had already told her he planned to marry the first woman who would accept him.

  When the Devonshires were eventually able to drive to Versailles they found the Polignacs and the King and Queen excessively glad to see them. On their first visit they arrived in the morning and were made to stay for dinner. They went each day and listened sympathetically to their friends’ complaints. Georgiana found the King looking better than she expected and the Queen looking worse. “She received us very graciously indeed, tho’ very much out of spirit at the times. She asked much after you and took the children’s picture and admir’d it very much. She is sadly altered, her belly quite big, and no hair at all, but she has still great éclat.”12 They spent many hours with the Comte d’Artois, who raged against the complicity of his cousin d’Orléans. On June 27 Louis capitulated and ordered the other two Estates to join the Third. “The King has wrote to his nobles to join the tiers,” Georgiana reported, “which in fact is giving up his authority entirely. The Cte D’Artois wrote to tell them if they did not join the King’s life was in danger. The people are wild with joy, and all our friends miserable.”13 Three days later the Estates merged, nobles and clergy marching into the hall in total silence as a way of marking their dis-approval. That night a riotous crowd surrounded Versailles shouting slogans and dancing to music until daybreak. The King and Queen briefly appeared on the balcony with their family, although the effect was spoiled when Marie Antoinette broke down in tears.

  Georgiana continued to hold sumptuous dinners for her friends in spite of the deteriorating situation. “We were frightened tonight,” she admitted, “as the mob at the Palais Royal were screaming and huzzaing because the guards, who had been imprison’d, were let out.”14 It was becoming difficult for her to travel about; “all is license and confusion.” She was more explicit about the situation to her brother, George, to whom she wrote on July 5: “The troubles of this place are not to be described—the guards refusing to act, the people half mad and the greatest part of the nobles divided in the most surprising manner, so that families are at daggers drawn.”15 Ignoring the dangers on the streets, where roving bands of youths were prone to commit random acts of violence against the rich, Georgiana went out to meet the leaders of the “patriot” side. No stranger to political debate, she enjoyed arguing with them: “I confess I amuse myself at Paris. . . . I saw La Fayette at the Vicomte de Noailles late. They disputed amazingly on Politicks with me. I am for the Court on Mme Polignac’s account. They are violently against it.”16 She knew her position was indefensible considering her staunch opposition to the court at home, but she didn’t care. Parisian society admired her independent spirit: “they make a great fuss of me, and pay me outrageous compliments,” she told Harriet.17 This was an understatement in Lady Sutherland’s opinion:

  I don’t think the French bon ton a very beautiful set of people, being dingy and little, and rather rabougris [stunted]. The Dss of Devonshire looks like a creature of different species from any of them; all the men are wonderfully épris with her, and the women who have pretensions get out of her way; as I have none, but am quite a harmless stupid being, I think her the most charming creature I ever saw in my life, and it is quite impossible to see much of her without liking her extremely.18

  The Duke, however, had had enough of Paris, and on July 8 Georgiana and Bess, dressed in mourning, made one last visit to Versailles to say goodbye to their friends. The roads were lined with foreign troops, which encouraged rumours that the King, or the Queen and her party, were planning a coup against the Assembly. Georgiana saw Marie Antoinette alone for a little while, and then the Little Po, who had been a faithful friend to her. Their correspondence had never slackened; for Georgiana’s sake she had accepted Bess, helped to bring Caroline St. Jules to Paris, and provided countenance to Coutts‘s daughters. They knew most of each other’s secrets, and had swapped advice on matters political and romantic for more than fifteen years. Georgiana said farewell not knowing when she would see her again, or in what circumstances.

  “A Hint to the Ladies to Take Care of Their Heads,” cartoon by Sayer. One of a number of cartoons appearing in 1776 that made fun of the outrageous headdresses sported by Georgiana and her friends. BM Cat. 5395.

  Spencer House, northeast view; watercolor drawing, c. 1780.

  Spencer House, north front. The photograph, taken in 1942, shows the damage caused by enemy bombing during the Second World War.

  Engraving of Wimbledon Park House, Surrey. Completed in 1732, it was built by the Duchess
of Marlborough to designs by Roger Morris and the Earl of Pembroke. Half a century later the house was destroyed by fire, and the second Earl Spencer decided to let it remain in ruins.

  Front of Devonshire House c. 1890. The original house burnt down in 1733 and the third Duke commissioned William Kent to rebuild it. Critics condemned the house as ugly and undistinguished, and particularly hated the wall, which spoiled the view. In the nineteenth century, the sixth Duke removed the sweeping steps to the first floor and made the entrance on the ground floor.

  Top left: Georgiana, aged three, after Reynolds; top right: Georgiana, by Richard Cosway; bottom left: Georgiana, by an unknown artist; bottom right: Georgiana, by John Downman.

  The adult portraits, painted between 1776 and 1789, show Georgiana, aged nineteen to thirty-two, when she was at the height of her celebrity; yet they are all remarkably simple and unaffected.

  Prince of Wales (1762–1830), by John Hoppner. In 1782 Georgiana wrote of him, “He is inclined to be too fat and looks too much Georgiana denied like a woman in men’s clothes.”

  Charles James Fox (1749–1806), as a young MP before becoming leader of the Whig party, by John Powell. they were ever lovers.

  A Gaming Table at Devonshire House, by T. Rowlandson. Georgiana throws the dice while her sister Harriet takes money from her purse. The stakes in these games were ruinously high, and they and their friends, including Charles James Fox and the Prince of Wales, lost fortunes at the tables. When not at Devonshire House, Fox and the Prince threw their money away at Brooks’s Club in St. James’s.

  GEORGIANA’S FOUR CHILDREN

  Top left: Lady Georgiana “Little G” Cavendish (1783–1858) and Lady Harriet “Harryo” Cavendish (1785–1862) as children.

  Top right: Harryo after her marriage to Lord Granville Leveson Gower in 1809, by Thomas Barber.

  Left: Hartington (1790–1858) after he became the sixth Duke of Devonshire in 1811,by Thomas Lawrence.

  Right: Eliza Courtney (1792–1859), Georgiana’s illegitimate child by Charles Grey.

  Above ounger (1759–1806), by John Jackson, after Hoppner. The portrait, completed after Pitt died, shows the toll of twenty-one years as Prime Minister.

  Above: Charles, third Duke of Richmond (1735–1806), by George Romney. Bess was still living at Devonshire House (but no longer the Duke’s mistress) when she began a four-year affair with Richmond in 1796.

  Above: Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), by Camille Manzini. Grenville reputedly never married because of his unrequited love for Georgiana. Pitt persuaded both Richmond and Grenville to desert Fox and join his government in 1784 and 1794, respectively.

  Charles, second Earl Grey (1764–1845), by James Northcote. After the Duke of Devonshire discovered Georgiana’s affair with Grey, he forced her to choose between her lover and her children.

  Sir Philip Francis (1740–1818), by James Lonsdale, was another of Georgiana’s admirers.

  Lord Granville Leveson Gower (1773–1846), after Sir Thomas Lawrence. Though Harriet had two illegitimate children with him, she showed great courage and self-sacrifice in supporting his decision to marry her niece, Georgiana’s daughter Harryo.

  Third Duke of Dorset (1745–99), by Reynolds. Georgiana abandoned him for Grey, who became the love of her life.

  The Devonshires were in Brussels, en route to Spa, when a messenger reached them with news of the storming of the Bastille. The report of the governor’s lynching and the bloody outrages which accompanied his murder made them fear for their friends. To their relief they heard almost immediately that the Comte d’Artois, the Prince de Condé, and the Polignacs had escaped, fleeing Versailles in the middle of the night. They had left without servants so as not to attract notice, and even then, Georgiana told her mother, the Polignacs’ sons were almost caught and murdered. Marie Antoinette had urged them to go, but their departure left her almost completely alone except for her family and a few attendants.

  James Hare wrote to Georgiana at Spa on July 18 to give her an eyewitness account of the rioting and to reassure her that Charlotte was safe. They had left her with a French family, never imagining the bedlam which would overtake the city. Georgiana told Lady Spencer that the Duke of Devonshire “really cry’d from anxiety” at the thought of poor Charlotte surrounded by a “mad populace arm’d with pistols, swords and bayonets” and, even as an “Englishwoman,” she admitted to being frightened by the “extraordinary events.”19 But the Duke’s tears were not only (if at all) for Charlotte, but for little Caroline, to whom Georgiana referred very casually in her letters as the “other pensioner, Mlle de St Jules, a young lady from the provinces.”20 Very few people knew of her existence apart from the Little Po and James Hare. With several illegitimate children of his own he sincerely sympathized with the Duke and Bess: “The constant anxiety which I feel for my own children would of itself sufficiently dispose me to assist almost anybody when children are concerned,” he had written in reply to their request for help.21 He not only visited Charlotte and Caroline but also the infant Clifford—he even made sure Coutts’s daughters were safe in their convent. Hare found the boy well cared for but shy (“how happens this?” he wrote), although he was pleased to learn from the nurse that both Bess and the Duke had seen the boy before they left Paris.

  Georgiana understood Bess’s desire to have Caroline with her permanently, but she dreaded the scandalous rumours which her presence at Devonshire House would generate. She had the reputation of her own two daughters to protect. Bess hesitated to force the issue until encouraged to do so by Hare. She had a duty to her daughter, he told her:

  It would be dealing insincerely with you if I were to say that I think her introduction at D. House will occasion no surmises or scandal, but this consideration is in my mind infinitely over ballanced by your having her under your own care, whether one thinks of her advantage or your amusement. As to the difficulties which seem to terrify the Dss so much, I guess [what] they must be, and I wish they did not exist, but they cannot last long, and when once the little woman has gained a footing, I am not afraid of her being disturbed. As to any scruples that you may entertain about imposing on people whom you ought to love, and do, I confess it would be pleasanter if no deceit were necessary, but when things have gone so far as they have, there is no choice left, and it becomes a duty to consult the interest of the poor little helpless wretches, even at the expence of feelings . . .22

  He was equally blunt with Georgiana; they had a chance while there was such confusion in Paris to absorb Caroline into their orbit with the minimum of fuss and she should take it. “It is a pity,” he wrote, “that there should be any obstacle to you taking little Caroline more immediately under your own care, for she is the prettiest child I ever saw.”23 By mid-September Charlotte and “the other pensioner” had joined them at Spa.

  Georgiana continued to receive almost daily reports of the situation in Paris from the Duke of Dorset. The mob had become distinctly Anglophobic, in reaction to Marie Antoinette’s love of all things English, and briefly besieged the British embassy. Dorset, arriving by chance at just the wrong moment, had to fight his way through with his sword. The Duke of Devonshire began to talk of their going home, which dismayed Georgiana, who feared her creditors more than the revolutionaries. Coutts had discovered she had been lying to him. “You are not, you cannot be more interested in your own honour and character than I am,” he wrote angrily, “which is the reason I have always wished you to tell me frankly every thing.”24 He refused her plea for another loan. James Hare guessed something was wrong when Georgiana told him how she dreaded returning to London.

  If you are in any scrape about money it will be impossible for you to conceal it from the Duke [he counselled], and therefore the sooner he knows it the better, but, for God’s sake, if you tell him anything tell him all, or let Ly Elizabeth or let me tell him. There is no situation so desperate where there is not something to be done, and if you were in debt more than his whole estate would sell for, i
t would be equally advisable to acquaint him with it, as if you owed but £5000. . . . What I dread most is that you should be sanguine enough to trust to some future good fortune to extricate you out of your difficulties, and so get more deeply involved.25