Georgiana Cavendish - Devonshire - Lady Di's Ancestor With An Eerily Similar Life

Georgiana Spencer was born in all Thorpe outside Northampton on June 7 1757. she was the eldest daughter of John Spencer the first Earl Spencer and Margaret Georgiana points Georgiana was a precocious and loving child who had a very close relationship to her mother she was Less close to her father because she was afraid of his sudden bad moods although he was not really violent the Spencer house regularly held performances in concerts and Georgiana grew up in an extraordinarily fashionable environment of writers politicians and artists along with her younger brother George John the later second Earl Spencer and her sister Harriet Francis she enjoyed a good education Lord and Lady Spencer traveled extensively and sometimes Georgiana George and Harriet were allowed to go with them georgiana's parents also played many gambling games until the early hours it is possible the gambling addiction of her parents contributed to the later gambling addiction Georgiana developed herself Georgiana met William Cavendish the fifth Duke of Devonshire for the first time in 1772 despite his shy appearance Devonshire was considered to be an attractive man in the spring of 1774 it was decided Georgiana was a good match for the Duke the Spencers were almost equal to the cavendishes on a social level Georgiana had a large Dowry she seemed to be popular and most importantly she was young and pliable Georgiana barely knew William but since it was in her nature to please her parents she was delighted when she heard he wanted to marry her on June 7 1774 Georgiana married William Cavendish but after only three months of marriage Georgiana realized that Duke had no feelings for her he did not act unkind to her but was mostly very distant the couple had little in common Georgiana wrote to her mother that she was trying her best to be more attractive to her husband georgiana's mother suggested that Georgiana should abandon any sense of Independence and show her subordination to her husband by doing whatever he wanted not wanting to disappoint her mother Georgiana did her best to send her mother cheerful letters about her life Georgiana entered the marriage with the thought of having a loving relationship but she soon found out that her job was to Bear children and fulfill social obligations the Duke was accustomed to his life as a bachelor he already received love from his mistress and companionship from his friends from his wife he expected loyalty support and mostly an error Devonshire did not know how to be romantic having never known tenderness himself he did not know how to give love to Georgiana he did not want to hurt her but there was a nine-year age difference and both Partners had different expectations of marriage after six years of marriage Williams mistress died Devonshire took his bastard daughter Charlotte Williams into his home and had Georgiana raise her Georgiana who had no children of her own was delighted about the little girl's arrival and soon loved her dearly Georgiana enjoyed spending the spring months in London because she could meet acquaintances there she also warmly accepted invitations from strangers so she was not left alone in Devonshire house as her husband had his own Pursuits at Social Gatherings and parties she impressed with her appearance but there was also a downside to georgiana's social life she became a heavy drinker and started gambling georgiana's Behavior drew a lot of attention to her and soon Georgiana had become a celebrity newspaper sold better when a drawing of Georgiana was printed in them in the years that followed georgiana's lack of maturity pulled her into a life of alcohol abuse and compulsive gambling her marriage was not what she expected from it and fashion no longer brought her satisfaction either yet newspapers kept reporting on her as soon as she expressed did or wore something new during the summer of 1782 Georgiana visited bath with her husband ostensibly to improve her fertility there Georgiana became acquainted with Lady Elizabeth Foster Elizabeth's appearance was nothing like georgiana's she was small thin and had dark hair although Elizabeth was from the same age as Georgiana she already had two sons in 1776 she had married John Thomas Foster but in 1780 while Elizabeth was pregnant with her second child the marriage ended Elizabeth's husband as usual in the 18th century was entitled to the children in addition he insisted that Elizabeth received no money from him it is possible that Elizabeth was treated this way by her husband because she committed adultery however this has never been confirmed both Georgiana and her husband William felt sorry for Elizabeth and wanted to support her as a close friendship formed Elizabeth came to realize that not only Georgiana but also William was lonely he had no female companionship since the death of his mistress Charlotte Georgiana had become too entangled in her own life to take the mistress's place Elizabeth saw that they could both use a confidante a role that she was happy to play though they were two different parts with the Duke she was submissive and flirtatious with Georgiana she was passionate and sensitive although letters suggest that Georgiana knew about an affair between her husband and Elizabeth the two women remained extremely fond of one another on July 12 1783 Georgiana gave birth to her first daughter also named Georgiana in 1785 a second daughter Harriet was born William Cavendish grew increasingly unhappy with his marriage to Georgiana he required two things from her she should not gamble away the family fortune and she should give birth to a male heir in the eyes of Cavendish Georgiana seemed incapable of fulfilling either of these requirements yet Cavendish did not want to go through with a divorce he enjoyed watching Georgiana and Elizabeth Vie for his attention in 1787 the affection deprived Georgiana fell in love with the young politician Charles Gray he was 23 she nearly 31. in late September 1789 Georgiana found out she was pregnant everyone hoped it would be a boy William was hoping for his long-awaited Heir Georgiana was hoping for freedom from her marriage and Elizabeth was hoping to spend more time with William when Georgiana would have finally done her marital Duty on the night of September 2nd 1790 Georgiana finally gave birth to a son named William Georgiana however was still very much in love with gray and became pregnant by him Cavendish was Furious and sent Georgiana abroad to give birth furthermore he presented Georgiana with a choice either she kept the baby but divorced William and never saw her children again or she broke off the relationship with gray and gave the baby up for adoption she chose the second option Georgiana was sent abroad and on February 20 1791 she gave birth to a daughter named Eliza Courtney immediately after her birth Eliza was sent to Charles Gray's parents to be raised by them Georgiana assumed her husband would be less angry after the birth but nothing could be further from the truth Cavendish denied her permission to return to England after two years Cavendish finally recalled her but upon her return Georgiana found her children were estranged from her her son in particular did not recognize his mother and cried every time he was touched by her and her eldest daughter had developed a complete lack of self-confidence Georgiana stuck to her resolve to make her husband's wishes a priority ignoring Grace proposal to resume their relationship although she still loved him the affair between William and Elizabeth on the other hand continued in 1795 Georgiana learned from a newspaper that gray had become engaged to marry ponsonby she was greatly saddened and received support from Elizabeth slowly georgiana's health started to deteriorate and changes to her character were noticeable she no longer smiled she had lost too much weight and she looked much older than her actual age the once outgoing Duchess had become introverted and started to lead a reclusive life in 1803 Georgiana suffered from kidney stones because of the severe pain she was prescribed painkillers to which she remained addicted for a while after her illness in March 1806 Georgiana was stricken with jaundice on March 26th Georgiana had an attack that lasted eight and a half hours the doctors did not know what to do afterwards it turned out there was nothing they could have done as she had developed an abscess on her liver on March 30 1806 at 3 30 in the morning Georgiana Cavendish died at the age of 48. she was buried in family vault at the Derby Cathedral thank you for watching

Channel: The Kings of France

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Id: aPI0JpUpt1g

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023