Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman

A well researched biography of Georgiana, an 18th century English icon.

I enjoyed reading this biography of Georgiana Spencer (forebear of Diana, Princess of Wales) by Amanda Foreman, who holds a doctorate in Eighteenth-Century British History from Oxford University. The biography was based on the author’s 4 1/2 years of extensive research into the life of an extraordinary woman.

Georgiana was a trailblazer in many ways. She first became known as a fashion trendsetter – English as well as French society followed her style in dress and hats. After her debut, she started the trend in really tall hair, appearing with 3-foot hair tower made possible with scented pomade and horse hair. Accessories were added to the hair, such as ship in full sail, stuffed birds, waxed fruits, or a pastoral tableau with miniature trees and ships. Ladies tried to outdo each other with the tallest head, never mind if they had to sit on the floor of their carriages.

Her trademark accessory was a drooping ostrich feather (as long as 4 feet!) attached in a wide arch across her hair. The large ostrich feathers became a symbol of exclusivity and arrogance which only the uber rich could afford that Queen Charlotte had to ban ostrich feathers from court.

She became the first woman who used her celebrity to further political cause at a time when aristocratic ladies were supposed to be living quiet idle lives and did not earn their living. The only women with public personas were either actresses or courtesans who were generally treated as the same. Newspaper editors soon learned that any mention of Georgiana increased newspaper sales. Georgiana’s celebrity status coincided with the flowering of the English press which marked the end of official censorship.

A miniature of the Duchess of Devonshire

Her fame extended to being a formidable hostess for the Whig party, gradually becoming a respected campaigner and negotiator. She was the first woman to conduct a modern electoral campaign, moving from house to house and shop to shop while persuading ordinary people to vote for Whigs. (This was at a time when women could not vote). Society was scandalized and cartoons in newspapers accused her of kissing butchers in exchange for votes.

Georgiana was also a musician, a novelist who wrote an expose on high society behaviour of which she was a leading member, and an amateur chemist and mineralogist with a large collection of stones and minerals of museum quality.

Despite her accomplishments, she had her share of sufferings. She was considered a handsome woman and yet her husband was cold to her. She endured yo-yo dieting, and the pressure of producing a male heir to the Spencer family, finally giving birth to one after 16 years of marriage. She gave birth to an illegitimate daughter by Lord Charles Grey (of the Earl Grey tea fame) and had to go to France to give birth secretly. The baby was taken away from her right after birth, cared for by a foster mother and then sent to Grey’s family in England.

She was a generous patron of the arts and a contributor in many charitable causes yet mired in debt due to her addiction to gambling (particularly at the faro table, a game of chance). For years she hid the magnitude of her debt from her husband which amounted to L 50,000 (around L 6 million today). She went blind in one eye, enduring medical treatments considered appalling even by 18th century standards.

Georgiana’s success as a politician at a time when politics was a male-dominated arena while having to endure personal sufferings only made her life more remarkable. She died at the age of 48 years.

The book provided many surprising and interesting bits of information on 18th century England, but more of this in a separate post. I am hoping to see the movie “The Duchess” starring Keira Knightley to see how such an extraordinary woman was portrayed.

Painting of Georgiana by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1775-76