Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Spencer; jor-JAY-nə; 7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806), was an English aristocrat, socialite, political organiser, author, and activist. Born into the Spencer family and married into the Cavendish family, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, and the mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire.
The Duchess was famous for her charisma, political influence, beauty, unusual marital arrangement, love affairs, socializing, and notoriety for her gambling addiction, leading to an immense debt. She was the great-great-great-grandaunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. Their lives, two centuries apart, have been compared in tragedy.
The Duchess was born Miss Georgiana Spencer, on 7 June 1757, as the first child of John Spencer (later Earl Spencer) and his wife, Georgiana (née Poyntz, later Countess Spencer), at the Spencer family home, Althorp. After her daughter's birth, her mother Lady Spencer 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 ("Harriet") and George. The daughter of her sister Henrietta, Lady Caroline Lamb, would become a writer and lover of Lord Byron. John Spencer, a great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, came from a wealthy English noble family. He built Spencer House as a family residence at St. James's, London, and raised his children there. Lord and Lady Spencer had what was considered an unusually happy and demonstrably affectionate marriage for the era, raising their children according to the "modern" and enlightened ideas of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Georgiana was the family favourite and had an extraordinary close bond with her mother, who confessed to favouring her over her other children, but this stability ended abruptly when she was separated from her parents when they travelled to Italy for her father's health. While her mother admitted it was "difficult" to leave her behind, her primary devotion was to her husband, rather than her children. This abandonment was a profound shock to Georgiana, who became noticeably anxious to please and emotionally dependent on those around her.
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.
In 1766, the death of the Spencers' fourth child, soon after her first birthday, and then the loss of another daughter after only a few weeks just three years later, started an era of obsessive travelling and gambling as they sought distraction from their "heavy affliction". Georgiana's mother attempted to balance the worldly vice of gambling until dawn with self-denial and good works, but was aware, as were others, that this obsession was not based on a real religious devotion. The gambling that absorbed both her troubled parents' attention and became a household routine would become a pervasive influence for the rest of Georgiana's life.
On her seventeenth birthday, 7 June 1774, Lady Georgiana Spencer was married to society's most eligible bachelor, William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, who was nine years her senior. The wedding took place at Wimbledon Parish Church. It was a small ceremony attended only by her parents, her paternal grandmother Lady Cowper, one of her prospective brothers-in-law, and her soon-to-be sister-in-law, the Duchess of Portland. Her parents were reluctant to let their daughter go, and while she was now married to one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the land, still attempted to exert their parental influence and keep her emotionally dependent on them. Her father, who had always shown affection to his children, wrote to her, "But indeed my Dearest Georgiana, I did not know until lately how much I loved you; I miss you every day and every hour." The bond between Georgiana and her mother continued after her marriage in a lifelong correspondence; many of their letters survive.
Unlike her mother, Georgiana had not been out in society for several seasons, nor had she accepted the Duke because she loved and preferred him to all others. The Duke of Devonshire, referred to as "the Duke" by his family and friends, was a notoriously reserved and taciturn man, described as being "incapable of any strong emotion, and destitute of all energy and activity of mind." Primarily motivated to please her parents with an illustrious marriage, Georgiana believed that Duke's outward detachment might conceal a loving personality similar to her introverted father's, and that in their marriage she would be both wife and companion. She was sadly mistaken; although they grew closer in later life, at the beginning of their marriage the Duke could not meet Georgiana's emotional needs, and she quickly learned her role was solely to produce an heir and fulfil her social obligations. They had few interests in common, and as society dictated it was unfashionable for husband and wife to be seen too much in each other's company, the Duke was able to resume his bachelor lifestyle by spending nights playing cards at Brooks's. But that also allowed Georgiana to pursue her own gambling addiction.
Georgiana embraced the frenetic whirl of society and all the distractions it offered. Her position meant that she was a fashion leader, and her wit, personality and innate sense of style quickly made her a sought-after popular figure in her own right. Public speculation as to when her frenetic lifestyle would lead to collapse was satisfied when she miscarried for the second time in April 1776. One contributing stressor was that she was deeply in debt and afraid to tell the Duke; she had hoped to be forgiven following the birth of their first child. This situation worsened as the Duke sided with popular opinion, which blamed her miscarriage on her reckless lifestyle. When her creditors threatened to apply to him, she was forced to confide in her parents. Furious, they paid her debts, but insisted that she confess to the Duke. He repaid them and then did not refer to the matter. If Lady Spencer was shaken to discover that her daughter withheld secrets from her, Georgiana was more unnerved that the matter was met by silence on the part of her husband, rather than by anger.
Before their marriage, the Duke had fathered an illegitimate daughter, Charlotte Williams, born from a dalliance with a former milliner, Charlotte Spencer (of no relation to the House of Spencer). This was unknown to the Duchess until years after her marriage to the Duke. After the death of the child's mother, the Duke chose to take responsibility for her, and the Duchess was asked to raise Charlotte herself. Georgiana was "very pleased" with Charlotte, although her own mother Lady Spencer expressed disapproval: "I hope you have not talk'd of her to people". The besotted Georgiana replied, "She is the best humoured little thing you ever saw".
At end of 1777, Georgiana met Mrs Mary Graham. They were introduced while Georgiana was in Brighton to improve her fertility, while Mary was there for her fragile health. Lady Clermont reported to Lady Spencer about Georgiana's instant closeness to Mary, describing her as "a very pretty sort of girl. I wish she had half a dozen more such favourites". They would correspond passionately; Georgiana had finally found someone genuine to whom she could vent without judgement or remorse. But, in 1781, the doctor ordered Mary to be taken to a warmer climate for her weak lungs. Georgiana was devastated and tried to seek her replacement, with no avail.
In 1782, while on a retreat from London with the Duke, Georgiana met Lady Elizabeth Foster (widely known as "Bess") in the City of Bath. She became close friends with Bess, who had become destitute after separating from her husband and two sons. Given the bond that developed between the two women (and the difficult position her new friend was in), with the Duke's acquiescence Georgiana agreed to have Lady Elizabeth live with them. When the Duke began a sexual relationship with Lady Elizabeth, a ménage à trois was established, and it was arranged that Lady Elizabeth live with them permanently. While it was common for male members of the upper class to have mistresses, and female aristocrats to have lovers, it was not common or generally acceptable for a mistress to live so openly with a married couple. Furthermore, Georgiana had been desperately lonely since her marriage to the Duke, and finally having found what she believed to be the ideal friend, she became emotionally close to Lady Elizabeth. Whatever she really thought about it, the Duchess certainly became complicit in her best friend's affair with her husband. In one of her letters, Georgiana wrote to Bess, "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?" It seems Bess too had a deep emotional connection with Georgiana: at her death years later, a locket of Georgiana's hair was found around Elizabeth's neck, as well as a bracelet also containing hair of Georgiana on a table beside her deathbed. In modern times it's been suggested that Lady Elizabeth insinuated her way into the marriage by taking advantage of the Duchess's friendship and codependency on her, and "engineered her way" into a sexual relationship with the Duke. It's true that Lady Elizabeth also engaged in well-documented sexual relations with other men while she was in the "love triangle" with the Duke and Duchess. Among 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 high-profile marriage. Lady Elizabeth's affair with the Duke resulted in two illegitimate children: a daughter, Caroline Rosalie St Jules, and a son, Augustus Clifford.