Noble Blood - The Love of the Duchess of Devonshire, Part 2

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

After Georgiana Cavendish gave her husband an heir, she was free to pursue extramarital lovers. But her affair with Charles Grey would leave her forced to give birth in France while a revolution raged, terrified, and writing letters in her own blood. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Merch! — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and pre-order its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is Amy Rovock alongside T.J. Holmes from the Amy and T.J. podcast. And there is so much news, information, commentary coming at you all day and from all over the place. What's fact? What's fake? And sometimes what the F. So let's cut the crap, okay? Follow the Amy and T.J. podcast, a one-stop news and pop culture shop to get you caught up and on with your day. And listen to Amy and T.J.

the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. In February 1792, reclined in a bed somewhere on the outskirts of Montpellier, France, Georgina Cavendish lifted a shaking hand to dip her quill into the well of crimson ink at her bedside. quote, as soon as you are old enough to understand this letter it will be given to you, she wrote to her infant son. It contained the only present I can make you, my blessing, written in my blood. At 34 years of age, fearing her death, the Duchess of Devonshire wrote to her children overseas

in the hopes that these words, written in what would be the only lasting peace of her living form, would be some comfort to them. Quote, one of my greatest pains in dying is not to see you again, she wrote to her elder daughter. I die, my dearest child, with the most unfeigned repentance

for my many errors. As her hands gripped desperately on to what she believed would be her last words to her children, it's difficult to say exactly which of her many errors Georgiana was referring to. On the surface, it seems obvious

that she might be speaking of her thousand upon thousands of pounds in gambling debt, especially when she later advised in her letter to, quote, learn to be exact about expense. But if you were there with Georgiana that day, if you were watching her fill the pages

with her parting thoughts, it would have been impossible for you to ignore the significant swell of her belly protruding from her otherwise slight frame, a belly which alludes to one perturting, particular error, the one that had put her there in a stranger's home in the French countryside, days away from giving birth. But is that right? Had it been an error to have followed her heart, to have fallen in love, to wish more than anything that she could keep this child that she was

about to give birth to, perhaps her only errors lied in the circumstances outside of her control, the decisions she was being forced to make in order to keep her three other children with a mother in their lives. Days later, despite the difficult pregnancy, Georgiana would survive the birth of her daughter, though she would never be able to claim her as such. Barely hours after entering the world, the newborn infant, Eliza Courtney, was ripped from her mother's arms to live with her paternal grandparents in Northumberland, England. The birth may have spared Georgiana's life, but the unspeakable pain she felt watching her daughter be taken away would, along with the combined weight of the rest of her life's many errors,

threatened to sink her into an even deeper oblivion than the death that she had so feared. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Two years earlier, on a much happier morning in May 1790, the deafening cry of a newborn, child was celebrated with the wet smiles and warm embraces of a family brimming with equal parts joy and relief. At long last, the Duke and Duchess had finally been blessed with their Devonshire heir. The newborn Marquess of Hardington, or Hart, as he was affectionately called, was the product of nearly 16 years of fertility struggles and marital turmoil that had at long last settled into an, if not healthy, at least semi-functional arrangement.

In the years since the Duke and Duchess's temporary separation, Georgiana's uncontrollable gambling continued to escalate her debts. Only then, following the Duke's threat of separation and her best friend Bess's suspicious lack of support, did Georgiana become determined to change her ways. Or short of that, she at least swore to stop withholding the details of her debt from her best friend Bess. That was what Georgiana had assumed had angered Bess anyway,

not that Bess had a desire to see Georgiana gone so that she herself could become the Duchess. Bess, or Lady Elizabeth Foster, for those who need a quick refresher, was the half-genuine, half-social climbing best friend of Georgiana, who, after being invited to live with the couple in London, later became Georgiana's husband, the Duke's mistress. Without a doubt, Bess stood to gain, quite a bit had her friend no longer been the Duchess, but the drawbacks of driving Georgiana from her own home while she was supposed to be her closest friend

ultimately forced her to accept her lot in life as the Devonshire's token third wheel. Though following the arrival of their long-awaited air, Bess and Georgiana's relationship became stronger than it had ever been. With the Devonshire's marital future secured, the physical responsibilities of Georgiana's marriage had been fulfilled, which meant that Bess no longer had to share the Duke with his wife. And so when Georgina began to express interest in a man other than her husband, Bess certainly had no reason to object.

The man in question was the young, passionate, up-and-coming wig politician Charles, Gray. Where the Duke was distant and emotionally unavailable, Gray was bold and romantic with an inherent flair for drama. The two had met through their joint work for the Whig Party, but it quickly became clear that Gray's passion wasn't just limited to politics. From causing scenes at Devonshire House Circle parties to quote-unquote secret rendezvouses in Bath, The pair couldn't have been less discreet if one of Georgiana's legendary wigs had had a neon sign attached flashing the words, We're having an affair above her head as they paraded across London. The more London talked, the more Georgiana's friends tried to persuade her to be at least less conspicuous about her newfound love.

Bess, who had initially supported the affair, feared the Duke's inevitable retaliation at seeing his wife plastered across the same. the London tabloids. Even the playwright Richard Sheridan, who wrote The School for Scandal, the play from the beginning of last week's episode, based loosely on the Duchess's life, wrote to her begging her to see reason. Now, the very fact that the man who wrote an entire play scandalizing Georgiana's life was urging her to use discretion should have been enough of a red flag. But Georgiana was well past the point of listening to reason. Unlike the early years of her marriage when she had bent over backwards in an attempt to get the Duke to simply look at her for the first time in her life, Georgiana was not just romantically love,

but chaste. As popular and universally loved as she was by the Devonshire House Circle, none of it compared to the singular romantic attention that she received from Charles Gray. His bold declarations of love appealed to the romantic in Georgiana, who had been forced to tamper down her expectations of happily ever afters early on in her marriage. Of course, just as Georgiana was settling into her whirlwind fairy tale romance, the universe had already set plans into motion to bring her back to reality. By the end of summer 1791, she could no longer ignore the familiar changes her body began to take on, nor the inevitable repercussions that such changes were going to bring. after so many years of fertility issues and desperate prayers for a healthy child,

against all odds the Duchess was pregnant once again. In the early months, Georgiana was able to keep the physical signs of her pregnancy relatively hidden. Under the guise of helping her sister who had fallen ill and been sent to Cornwall to convales, Georgiana was able to carry her secret for six months before word of her condition began to spread, Of course, rather than simply coming clean and telling her husband the truth, similarly to how she handled her gambling debts, the Duchess chose to keep the truth from her husband until the day it would, inevitably, come knocking on their door.

Only when the Duke finally received word that it was of the utmost importance to see his wife with his own eyes, did he not knock on her door so much as kick it down. The Duke took one look at Georgiana, more than six months pregnant at this point, and dragged her into the next room, locking the door behind them. Not that the walls could do much to block out the volume of the Duke's rage, or of Georgiana's responding cries. In the end, the Duke gave his wife an ultimatum. Either end her affair with Gray and put their forthcoming child up for adoption,

or he would divorce her and refuse to let her see, their three children ever again. It was an impossible choice, but one that she made without pause. Even if the entirety of her decision hinged on the Duke keeping his word, she could never live without her three children. By the time the Duke departed from Cornwall,

it had been decided Georgiana would be sent abroad to France as soon as possible, presumably to come back once the child had been born and sent away. And so with nothing but the weight of her impending heartbreak and the future of her unborn child on her mind, Georgiana packed her bags and set forth

to meet her uncertain fate. It's at this point I think it's important to remind you exactly what was happening in France in the early 1790s. If you were a long-time listener, you may remember the very first Noble Blood episode was on none other than Marie Antoinette, the queen whose decapitated head became the symbol of the French Revolution. Well, coincidentally, she and Georgiana had grown to be quite good friends, both able to commiserate over their overbearing mothers and lackluster husbands. But considering the general French populace agreed that they wanted to see Marie Antoinette's head in a blood-straw-lined basket, being her friend, or being associated with French nobility at all, was about the last thing you would want to do

in 1790s France. Which brings us to a resident on the outskirts of Montpellier days before Georgiana was due to give birth to her fourth child. With the comforts of home and her family physicians across the English Channel, the precarious ground on which the French monarchy

stood only added to the Duchess's paranoia as to the likelihood of her impending death. In addition to the blood-inked letters she wrote to her children, Georgina penned a new will dated January 27, 1792.

and took out a life insurance policy on herself for about a thousand pounds. Comparatively, the thousand pounds was a pittance in the grand scheme of what she owed to her various creditors across Great Britain, but the intention of her gesture was clear. She may have had no control over when or even if she would be able to return to see her children again, but she wanted to make sure they would be taken care of regardless of what happened to her. Perhaps Georgiana's only saving grace in her forced exile were the people that had chosen to accompany her. Along with her mother and her sister, to the Duke and the rest of London Society's surprise, Bess had agreed to join Georgiana's party abroad.

When he had initially made his ultimatum, the Duke had expected Georgiana to agree to his terms, end her affair, and have the child abroad. He had not expected his mistress to voluntarily choose to abandon him, albeit temporarily, to go with his exiled wife to war-torn France. After all, now that the Duke had proof of the Duchess's infidelity, Bess's role in Devonshire House suddenly had new potential. Should he go back on his word and choose to divorce Georgiana, he'd technically be in his right to do so,

meaning Bess would naturally be next in line to become Duchess. But what the Duke hadn't taken into account was that this wasn't the first time he had sent a woman in Devonshire House abroad to have their illegitimate child. Bess knew how it felt. In fact, over the course of their nearly decade-long affair, the Duke had sent Bess abroad to have not one, but two of his illegitimate children,

subsequently forcing her to hand each of them off to a foster family so she could come back to London child-free. But now that Giorgiana was to be forced to endure the same fate, Bess saw an opportunity to bring her children back into her life, And if Georgiana and Bess had anything in common other than their relationship to the Duke, it was their determination to ensure the well-being of their children. So when the rest of Georgina's family moved on to niece for the sake of Georgina's sister's health, Bess and her six-year-old daughter, Caroline St. Jules, stayed behind with Georgina in Montpellier.

And on February 20, 1792, with Bess at her side, Georgina gave birth to her daughter, Elizabeth Courtney. In a poem by Georgiana dated just days after Eliza's birth, she wrote to her daughter, quote, And should thun generous world upbraid thee, For mine and for thy father's ill, A nameless mother oft shall assist thee, A hand unseen, Protect thee still. It's obvious the loss of her newborn daughter was devastating, But the words she left for Eliza in the poem suggest she hadn't given up hope as to the possibility possibility of influencing her daughter's life from afar. And while there's no substantial evidence to prove it, I like to think that despite their somewhat tumultuous relationship, having best there to

support her, not just as her close friend, but as another woman who had been forced to give away her child because of the Duke, was at least a small comfort to Georgiana, especially with Caroline St. Jules at Bess's side, even though the child was technically the living proof, of Bess's and her husband's infidelity. Seeing Bess and her daughter reunited after so many years apart likely gave Georgiana some semblance of hope in the bleak days following the loss of her own daughter. But soon, days turned into weeks

and apart from dealing with her considerable grief, Georgina's days were spent doing one thing and one thing only, waiting to hear word from the Duke. By the time Georgina and Bess had caught up with the rest of their party in Nice, there was still no word. It became obvious that ultimatum or not, the Duke was not going to let Georgiana return to England so easily. Finally, in April, the Duke wrote to Georgiana, making himself perfectly clear. Beth could come home, but she, Georgiana, was to stay abroad until he deemed her worthy of returning. Just when she had begun to grow accustomed to the well of

grief that had permanently taken resident in her chest, a new wave of heartbreak threatened to overtake her entirely as the repercussions of the Duke's message settled in. Quote, Oh my dear child, Georgiana wrote in a letter to her eldest daughter, I can only assure you that your love and the hopes that you will not forget me is the comfort of my life now that I am absent from you. When I am to return is now very uncertain. I hope it will be soon as I do not feel I have strength to bear so long in absence. In her desperation to see her children again, the Duchess pleaded with her husband to let her and Bess visit

even for just a month in secret. But the Duke refused. Even Georgiana's sister Harriet noticed the despondent turn her sister had taken, writing in a letter to a mutual friend, quote, he never writes to her and seldom to Bess, and the last letter was in so harsh a style that I have little hopes of good. Even though the Duke had invited Bess to return to Devonshire House in London, it didn't take her long to realize that his irritation didn't solely lie with his wife.

Going back so far as when the Duke discovered Georgiana's pregnancy back in Cornwall, the Duke had been furious that Bess had kept such a monumental secret from him for so long. Add to that the fact that she had, had chosen to accompany his wife to France, and had taken back their illegitimate child with her to France, and Bess was suddenly vying for the title of Most Vexing Woman in Devonshire House. Still, the Duke invited her back, but it was clear to even those without the intimate knowledge of what went on in the Devonshire Menageratatois, that the Duke was doing so not out of his love for Bess, but in an effort to further isolate Georgiana. Ultimately, his efforts

would be for naught. Bess had solidified her place at Georgiana's side, and there would be nothing that could threaten to take her away. In the end, it would be two years before the Duke finally wrote to invite his Duchess back to London. As soon as they received word, Georgiana and Bess wasted no time packing their belongings and beginning the arduous task of returning home in the midst of the freshly overthrown French monarchy. And while watching English refugees attempt to clamber aboard the small yacht she and Bess had somehow charmed their way onto was no doubt traumatic. The welcome Georgiana was waiting for at Devonshire House would prove to be something else entirely. Quote, I have seen them, I have seen them,

Georgina wrote to her mother after being reunited with her three children at long last. Hartington is very pretty, she continued, but very cruel to me. He will not look at me or speak to me, though he kissed me a little at night. end quote. The differences in her children's demeanor were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the changes Georgiana walked into upon her return to London. Two years seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye, yet the truth remained that two years was vastly more significant in the eyes of her young children. Hart barely remembered his mother and, after further investigation, was discovered to be almost entirely deaf, after an infection of his had been left neglected for too long without being treated. In addition to the fury that she felt on behalf of her children,

Georgiana was greeted with yet another betrayal. Charles Gray was engaged to be married. Even if she had no intention of rekindling her flame with Gray, the fact that she had learned the news through the London papers and not through Gray himself was another bruise on Georgiana's already withering ego. London may have still considered her their darling, but the Duke's forced exile had taken its toll on the Duchess's mental health. She was terrified to make any wrong moves and fear that the Duke would send her away from her children again, which had the inverse reaction of making her somewhat of a recluse in the initial years after her return.

This behavior only compounded after a series of recurring migraines, which escalated into severe swelling and ultimately loss of vision. in her right eye. The treatment done by the doctors to attempt to salvage her vision verged on torture, and along with residual chronic pain, Georgiana was left with considerable scarring across her face. Upon her return, newspapers had expected Georgiana to come back to the ton with renewed fervor, but the combined trauma of her time away and the physical repercussions of her illness paralyzed her into a life now spent indoors. For months, she was

She refused to see visitors, but after so much time spent in isolation, the Duchess finally began to slowly take her life back. The children were steadily improving now that she had returned, and though her illness had left her with substantial vision loss and scarring on the upper half of her face, the imperfections had an oddly liberating effect on her life. In a letter she wrote two years after her illness, she wrote, quote, I have learned, however, to love my age and not be ashamed of it, and my illness perhaps was a benefit in making me relinquish at once, the ridiculous trade of an old beauty."

After accepting her new appearance, Georgiana slowly began making her way back out into the world. She actively took part in her eldest daughters coming out into society, but in the final years of her life, her most significant role would be in the political sphere. In her absence, the Whig Party had fallen well out of power, Its main players scattered as they each attempted to push their own agendas to little avail. The Duchess would become instrumental in hosting gatherings that brought together and solidified alliances

within the Whig Party for the first time since their unforgettable loss in 1784. Following the turn of the century, Georgiana's health would steadily begin to decline, but she was determined to bring the Whig Party back to its former glory. In the end, she would live long enough to see the Whigs finally come back into power in 1806, only to succumb to a liver abscess a few weeks later. Georgina passed away in the early morning hours of March 30, 1806, with Bess and the Duke both at her bedside. Her sister wrote of her passing, quote,

I saw it all, held her through all her struggles, saw her expire, and since have again and again kissed her cold lips and pressed her lifeless body to my heart. And yet I am alive." For those closest to the Duchess, it seemed impossible that the world could possibly continue to spin onwards after the loss of such a titanic presence. Even the Duke, whose emotional bandwidth, had held previously little regard to the well-being of his wife, lamented her passing. They may have had their differences, but for better or worse,

Georgeena had been a constant presence in his life, one that he found himself longing for now that it was gone. Of course, he still had Bess, but in the wake of their return from France, the Duke and Bess's relationship never fully recovered from her, quote, betrayal of choosing Georgiana over him. Initially after her death, Bess and the Duke went their separate ways. The Duke taking his children to their Chiswick house while Bess went to stay with Georgiana's sister. And perhaps Georgiana had worried that after her death, the Duke would cast Bess out, because whatever the reason, even after she was gone, Georgiana made certain Bess would be taken care of.

One of Georgiana's final actions was choosing Bess to be the sole guardian of all of her papers and correspondence. And whether it was intentional or not, Bess's involvement in the goings-on at Devonshire House solidified her place there even after all of Georgina's papers had been sorted. The Duke, after so many years attempting to distance himself from Bess after Georgiana's exile, now found himself increasingly reliant on Bess in the wake of his wife's death. Eventually, in 1809, three years after Georgiana's passing, Bess and the Duke finally married, and Bess finally became the Duchess of Devonshire.

And though Bess may have finally gotten the title she had so long been envious of, The grief that she felt the loss of her best friend was undoubtedly genuine. In a letter to her son written just a few months after Georgiana's death, quote, She is so present to me and I am so constantly occupied by her that I feel as if she was absent on a journey and I catch myself saying, I'll tell her this." And quote, Bess ended the letter to her son with a thought,

no doubt shared by all of London as they grieved the loss of their Duchess. Quote, Georgiana was the constant charm of my life. She doubled every joy, lessened every grief. Her society had an attraction I never met with in any other being. Her love for me was really passing the love of woman." That marks the end of our two-part series on the tragic life of Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit about the legacy of Georgina's lover. Earl Gray.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo.

My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come,

look for up-and-coming talent. that if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodam.

My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I was. want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.

Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be.

Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Charles Gray, the young romantic Whig politician who won the Duchess's heart, had not solely made it into our history books just on his association with Georgiana Cavendish. Nor was it because of his eventual rise to the office of British Prime Minister. No, despite his important role in the political sphere, ironically Gray's fame, his lasting fame at least, would come from perhaps the most British thing that you can become famous for.

T. Following the death of his father in 1807, Charles inherited his father's title. Earl Gray. Yes, that Earl Grey. As is often the case, there are conflicting things. theories as to the authenticity of the ties between the bergamot-flavored black tea and the Earl. Some say that the tea was given to him as a gift by a Chinese man whose son was rescued from drowning by one of Grey's men. The Twinings Tea website claims that the Earl asked Richard Twining himself to recreate the blend after, quote, he was presented with the exquisite recipe by an envoy on his return from China. In the end, like most of history's tall tales, the details will likely remain lost to us. But the next time you enjoy a cup of Earl Gray, maybe take

a moment to remember the man behind the tea, or the woman who loved him. Noble Blood is a production of I-Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is produced by Rima I'll with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio,

visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey there, folks, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes here. And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran to the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high-profile trials, and what the hell is that Blake Loss?

lively thing about anyway. We are on it every day, all day. Follow us, Amy and T.J, for news updates throughout the day. Listen to Amy and T.J. on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.