Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, A production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener discretion advised.
Speaker 1: In February seventeen ninety two, reclined in a bed somewhere
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of Montpellier, France, Georgiana Cavendish lifted a
Speaker 1: shaking hand to dip her quill into the well of
Speaker 1: Crimson Ink at her bedside. Quote. As soon as you
Speaker 1: are old enough to understand this letter, it will be
Speaker 1: given to you, she wrote to her infant son. It
Speaker 1: contains the only present I can make you, my blessing
Speaker 1: written in my blood. At thirty four years of age,
Speaker 1: fearing her death, the Duchess of Devonshire wrote to her
Speaker 1: children overseas in the hopes that these words, written in
Speaker 1: what would be the only lasting piece of her living form,
Speaker 1: would be some comfort to them. Quote. One of my
Speaker 1: greatest pains in dying is not to see you again,
Speaker 1: she wrote to her elder daughter. I die, my dearest child,
Speaker 1: with the most unfeigned repentance for my many errors. As
Speaker 1: her hands gripped desperately onto what she believed would be
Speaker 1: her last words to her children, it's difficult to say
Speaker 1: exactly which of her many errors Georgiana was referring to.
Speaker 1: On the surface, it seems obvious that she might be
Speaker 1: speaking of her thousands upon thousands of pounds and gambling debt,
Speaker 1: especially when she later advised in her letter to quote
Speaker 1: learned to be exact about expense. But if you were
Speaker 1: there with Georgiana that day, if you were watching her
Speaker 1: fill the pages with her parting thoughts, it would have
Speaker 1: been impossible for you to ignore the significant swell of
Speaker 1: her belly protruding from her otherwise slight frame, a belly
Speaker 1: which alludes to one particular error, the one that had
Speaker 1: put her there in a stranger's home in the French countryside,
Speaker 1: days away from giving birth. But is that right? Had
Speaker 1: it been an error to have followed her heart, to
Speaker 1: have fallen in love, to wish more than anything that
Speaker 1: she could keep this child that she was about to
Speaker 1: give birth to. Perhaps her only errors lied in the
Speaker 1: circumstances outside of her control, the decisions she was being
Speaker 1: forced to make in order to keep her three other
Speaker 1: children with a mother in their lives. Days later, despite
Speaker 1: the difficult pregnancy, Georgiana would survive the birth of her daughter,
Speaker 1: though she would never be able to claim her as such.
Speaker 1: Barely hours after entering the world, the newborn infant Eliza Courtney,
Speaker 1: was ripped from her mother's arms to live with her
Speaker 1: paternal grandparents in Northumberland into England. The birth may have
Speaker 1: spared Georgiana's life, but the unspeakable pain she felt watching
Speaker 1: her daughter be taken away would, along with the combined
Speaker 1: weight of the rest of her life's many errors, threatened
Speaker 1: to sink her into an even deeper oblivion than the
Speaker 1: death that she had so feared. I'm Dana Schwartz and
Speaker 1: this is noble blood. Two years earlier, on a much
Speaker 1: happier morning in May, the deafening cry of a newborn
Speaker 1: child was celebrated with the wet smiles and warm embraces
Speaker 1: of a family brimming with equal parts joy and relief.
Speaker 1: At long last, the Duke and Duchess had finally been
Speaker 1: blessed with their Devonshire air. The newborn Marquess of Hardington,
Speaker 1: or Heart, as he was affectionately called, was the product
Speaker 1: of nearly sixteen years of fertility struggles and marital turmoil
Speaker 1: that had at long last settled into an, if not healthy,
Speaker 1: at least semi functional arrangement. In the years since the
Speaker 1: Duke and Duchess's temporary separation, Georgiana's uncontrollable gambling continued to
Speaker 1: escalate her debts. Only then, following the Duke's threat of
Speaker 1: separation and her best friend Bess's suspicious lack of support,
Speaker 1: did Georgiana become determined to change her ways, or short
Speaker 1: of that, she at least swore to stop withholding the
Speaker 1: details of her debt from her best friend Best That
Speaker 1: was what Georgiana had assumed had angered Best anyway, not
Speaker 1: that Bess had a desire to see Georgana gone so
Speaker 1: that she herself could become the duchess. Best or Lady
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Foster, for those who need a quick refresher, was
Speaker 1: the half genuine, half social climbing best friend of Georgiana, who,
Speaker 1: after being invited to live with the couple in London,
Speaker 1: later became Georgana's husband. The Duke's mistress. Without a doubt,
Speaker 1: Best stood to gain quite a bit had her friend
Speaker 1: no longer been the Duchess, But the drawbacks of driving
Speaker 1: Georgana from her own home while she was supposed to
Speaker 1: be her closest friend ultimately forced her to accept her
Speaker 1: lot in life as the Devonshire's token third wheel. Though,
Speaker 1: following the arrival of their long awaited air, Bess and
Speaker 1: Georgiana's relationship became stronger than it had ever been. With
Speaker 1: the Devonshire's marital future secured, the physical responsibilities of Georgiana's
Speaker 1: marriage had been fulfilled, which meant that Best no longer
Speaker 1: had to share the Duke with his wife, and so
Speaker 1: when Georgiana began to express interest in a man other
Speaker 1: than her husband, Best certainly had no reason to object.
Speaker 1: The man in question was the young, passionate, up and
Speaker 1: coming Wig politician Charles Gray. Where the Duke was distant
Speaker 1: and emotionally unavailable, Gray was bold and romantic, with an
Speaker 1: inherent flare for drama. The two had met through their
Speaker 1: joint work for the Whig Party, but it quickly became
Speaker 1: clear that Gray's passion wasn't just limited to politics. From
Speaker 1: causing scenes at Devonshire House circle parties to quote unquote
Speaker 1: secret rendezvous in Bath, the pair couldn't have been less
Speaker 1: discreet if one of Georgiana's legendary Whigs had had a
Speaker 1: neon sign attached flashing the words where having an affair
Speaker 1: above her head As they paraded across London. The more
Speaker 1: London talked, the more Georgana's friend tried to persuade her
Speaker 1: to be at least less conspicuous about her newfound love. Bess,
Speaker 1: who had initially supported the affair, feared the Duke's inevitable
Speaker 1: retaliation at seeing his wife plastered across the London tabloids.
Speaker 1: Even the playwright Richard Sheridan, who wrote The School for Scandal,
Speaker 1: the play from the beginning of last week's episode based
Speaker 1: loosely on the Duchess's life, wrote to her begging her
Speaker 1: to see reason now. The very fact that the man
Speaker 1: who wrote an entire play scandalizing Georgiana's life was urging
Speaker 1: her to use discretion should have been enough of a
Speaker 1: red flag, But Georgiana was well past the point of
Speaker 1: listening to reason. Unlike the early years of her marriage,
Speaker 1: when she had bent over backwards in an attempt to
Speaker 1: get the Duke to simply look at her for the
Speaker 1: first time in her life, Georgiana was not just romantically loved,
Speaker 1: but chased as popular and universally loved as she was
Speaker 1: by the Devonshire House circle. None of it compared to
Speaker 1: the singular romantic attention that she received from Charles Gray.
Speaker 1: His bold declarations of love appealed to the romantic in Georgiana,
Speaker 1: who had been forced to tamper down her expectations of
Speaker 1: happily ever afters early on in her marriage. Of course,
Speaker 1: just as Georgiana was settling into her whirlwind fairytale romance,
Speaker 1: the universe had already set planned into motion to bring
Speaker 1: her back to reality. By the end of summer se
Speaker 1: she could no longer ignore the familiar changes her body
Speaker 1: began to take on, nor the inevitable repercussions that such
Speaker 1: changes were going to bring. After so many years of
Speaker 1: fertility issues and desperate prayers for a healthy child, against
Speaker 1: all odds, that Duchess was pregnant once again. In the
Speaker 1: early months, Georgiana was able to keep the physical signs
Speaker 1: of her pregnancy relatively hidden under the guise of helping
Speaker 1: her sister, who had fallen ill and been sent to
Speaker 1: Cornwall to convalesce. Georgiana was able to carry her secret
Speaker 1: for six months before word of her condition began to spread.
Speaker 1: Of course, rather than simply coming clean and telling her
Speaker 1: husband the truth, Similarly to how she handled her game
Speaker 1: billing debts, the Duchess chose to keep the truth from
Speaker 1: her husband until the day it would inevitably come knocking
Speaker 1: on their door. Only when the Duke finally received word
Speaker 1: that it was of the utmost importance to see his
Speaker 1: wife with his own eyes did he not knock on
Speaker 1: her door so much as kick it down. The Duke
Speaker 1: took one look at Georgiana, more than six months pregnant
Speaker 1: at this point, and dragged her into the next room,
Speaker 1: locking the door behind them, not that the walls could
Speaker 1: do much to block out the volume of the Duke's
Speaker 1: rage or of Georgiana's responding cries. In the end, the
Speaker 1: Duke gave his wife an ultimatum. Either end her affair
Speaker 1: with Gray and put their forthcoming child up for adoption,
Speaker 1: or he would divorce her and refuse to let her
Speaker 1: see their three children ever again. It was an impossible choice,
Speaker 1: but one that she made without pause. Even if the
Speaker 1: entirety of her decision hinged on the Duke keeping his word.
Speaker 1: She could never live without her three children. By the
Speaker 1: time the Duke departed from Cornwall, it had been decided
Speaker 1: Georgiana would be sent abroad to France as soon as possible,
Speaker 1: presumably to come back once the child had been born
Speaker 1: and sent away, and so with nothing but the weight
Speaker 1: of her impending heartbreak and the future of her unborn
Speaker 1: child on her mind, Georgiana packed her bags and set
Speaker 1: forth to meet her uncertain fate. It's at this point
Speaker 1: I think it's important to remind you exactly what was
Speaker 1: happening in France in the early seventeen nineties. If you
Speaker 1: were a long time listener, you may remember the very
Speaker 1: first Noble Blood episode was on none other than Marie Antoinette,
Speaker 1: the queen whose decapitated head became the symbol of the
Speaker 1: French Revolution. Well coincidentally, she and Georgiana had grown to
Speaker 1: be quite good friends, both able to commiserate over their
Speaker 1: overbearing mothers and lackluster husbands, but considering the general French populace,
Speaker 1: agreed that they wanted to see Marie Antoinette's head in
Speaker 1: a blood straw lined basket. Being her friend, or being
Speaker 1: associated with French nobility at all, was about the last
Speaker 1: thing you would want to do in seventeen nineties France,
Speaker 1: Which brings us to a residence on the outskirts of Montpellier,
Speaker 1: days before Georgiana was due to give birth to her
Speaker 1: fourth child. With the comforts of home and her family
Speaker 1: physicians across the English Channel. The precarious ground on which
Speaker 1: the French monarchy stood only added to the Duchess's paranoia
Speaker 1: as to the likelihood of her impending death. In addition
Speaker 1: to the blood inked letters she wrote to her children,
Speaker 1: Georgiana penned a new will dated January and took out
Speaker 1: a life insurance policy on herself for about a thousand pounds. Comparatively,
Speaker 1: the thousand pounds was a pittance in the grand scheme
Speaker 1: of what she owed to her various creditors across Great Britain,
Speaker 1: but the intention of her gesture was clear. She may
Speaker 1: have had no control over when or even if she
Speaker 1: would be able to return to see her children again,
Speaker 1: but she wanted to make sure they would be taken
Speaker 1: care of regardless of what happened to her. Perhaps Georgiana's
Speaker 1: only saving grace in her forced exile were the people
Speaker 1: that had chosen to accompany her, along with her mother
Speaker 1: and her sister, to the Duke and the rest of
Speaker 1: London Society's surprise, Bess had agreed to join Georgana's party abroad.
Speaker 1: When he had initially made his ultimatum the Duke had
Speaker 1: expected Georgiana to agree to his terms and her affair
Speaker 1: and have the child abroad. He had not expected his
Speaker 1: mistress to voluntarily choose to abandon him, albeit temporarily, to
Speaker 1: go with his exiled wife to war torn France. After all,
Speaker 1: now that the Duke had proof of the Duchess's infidelity,
Speaker 1: Bess's role in Devonshire House suddenly had new potential. Should
Speaker 1: he go back on his word and choose to divorce Georgiana,
Speaker 1: he'd technically be in his right to do so, meaning
Speaker 1: Bess would naturally be next in line to become Duchess.
Speaker 1: But what the Duke hadn't taken into account was that
Speaker 1: this wasn't the first time he had sent a woman
Speaker 1: in Devonshire House abroad to have their illegitimate child. Bess
Speaker 1: knew how it felt. In fact, over the course of
Speaker 1: their nearly decade long affair, the Duke had sent Bess
Speaker 1: abroad to have not one but two of his illegitimate children,
Speaker 1: subsequently forcing her to hand each of them off to
Speaker 1: a foster family so she could come back to London
Speaker 1: child free. But now that Georgiana was to be forced
Speaker 1: to endure the same fate, best saw an opportunity to
Speaker 1: bring her children back into her life, and if Georgiana
Speaker 1: and Bess had anything in common other than their relationship
Speaker 1: to the Duke, it was their determination to sure the
Speaker 1: well being of their children. So when the rest of
Speaker 1: Georgiana's family moved on to Nice for the sake of
Speaker 1: Georgiana's sister's health, Bess and her six year old daughter,
Speaker 1: Caroline St. Jules stayed behind with Georgiana in Montpellier, and
Speaker 1: on February twenty, seventeen ninety two, with Bess at her side,
Speaker 1: Georgiana gave birth to her daughter, Elizabeth Courtney. In a
Speaker 1: poem by Georgiana dated just days after Eliza's birth, she
Speaker 1: wrote to her daughter, quote and should then generous world
Speaker 1: upbraid thee for mine and for thy father's ill. A
Speaker 1: nameless mother offt shall asiste a hand unseen protect thee.
Speaker 1: Still it's obvious the loss of her newborn daughter was devastating,
Speaker 1: but the words she left for Eliza in the poem
Speaker 1: suggests she hadn't given up hope as to the possibility
Speaker 1: of influencing her daughter's life from afar, and while there's
Speaker 1: no substantial evidence to prove it, I like to think
Speaker 1: that despite their somewhat tumultuous relationship, having Best there to
Speaker 1: support her, not just as her close friend, but as
Speaker 1: another woman who had been forced to give away her
Speaker 1: child because of the Duke, was at least a small
Speaker 1: comfort to Georgiana, especially with Caroline Saint Jules at Bess's side,
Speaker 1: even though the child was technically the living proof of
Speaker 1: Bess's and her husband's infidelity. Seeing Bess and her daughter
Speaker 1: reunited after so many years apart likely gave Georgiana some
Speaker 1: semblance of hope in the bleak days following the loss
Speaker 1: of her own daughter. But soon days turned into weeks,
Speaker 1: and apart from dealing with her considerable grief, Georgiana's days
Speaker 1: were spent doing one thing and one thing, only waiting
Speaker 1: to hear word from the Duke. By the time Georgana
Speaker 1: and Bess had caught up with the rest of their
Speaker 1: party in Niece, there was still no word. It became
Speaker 1: obvious that ultimatum or not, the Duke was not going
Speaker 1: to let Georgiana return to England so easily. Finally, in April,
Speaker 1: the Duke wrote to Georgiana, making himself perfectly clear Beth
Speaker 1: could come home, but she Georgiana was to stay abroad
Speaker 1: until he deemed her worthy of returning. Just when she
Speaker 1: had begun to grow accustomed to the well of grief
Speaker 1: that had permanently taken resident in her chest, a new
Speaker 1: wave of heartbreak threatened to overtake her entirely. As the
Speaker 1: repercussions of the Duke's message settled in quote, Oh, my
Speaker 1: dear child, Georgiana wrote in a letter to her eldest daughter,
Speaker 1: I can only assure you that your love and the
Speaker 1: hopes that you will not forget me, is the comfort
Speaker 1: of my life now that I am absent from you.
Speaker 1: When I am to return is now very uncertain. I
Speaker 1: hope it will be soon, as I do not feel
Speaker 1: I have strength to bear so long in absence. In
Speaker 1: her desperation to see her children again, the Duchess pleaded
Speaker 1: with her husband to let her and Best visit, even
Speaker 1: for just a month in secret, but the Duke refused.
Speaker 1: Even Georgana's sister Harriet, noticed the despondent turn her sister
Speaker 1: had taken, writing in a letter to a mutual friend,
Speaker 1: quote he never writes to her, and seldom to Best.
Speaker 1: And the last letter was in so harsh a style
Speaker 1: that I have little hopes of good. Even though the
Speaker 1: Duke had invited Best to return to Devonshire House in London,
Speaker 1: it didn't take her long to realize that his irritation
Speaker 1: didn't solely lie with his wife. Going back so far
Speaker 1: as when the Duke discovered Georgiana's pregnancy back in Cornwall,
Speaker 1: the Duke had been furious that Bess had kept such
Speaker 1: a monumental secret from him for so long. Add to
Speaker 1: that the fact that she had chosen to accompany his
Speaker 1: wife to France and had taken back their illegitimate child
Speaker 1: with her to France, and Bess was suddenly vying for
Speaker 1: the title of most vexing woman in Devonshire House. Still,
Speaker 1: the Duke invited her back, but it was clear to
Speaker 1: even those without the intimate knowledge of what went on
Speaker 1: in the Devonshire Managatois that the Duke was doing so
Speaker 1: not out of his love for Best, but in an
Speaker 1: effort to further isolate Georgiana. Ultimately, his efforts would be
Speaker 1: for not. Bess had solidified her place at Georgiana's side,
Speaker 1: and there would be nothing that could threaten to take
Speaker 1: her away. In the end, it would be two years
Speaker 1: before the Duke finally wrote to invite his duchess back
Speaker 1: to London. As soon as they received word, Georgiana and
Speaker 1: Bess wasted no time packing their belongings and beginning the
Speaker 1: arduous task of returning home in the midst of the
Speaker 1: freshly overthrown French monarchy, and while watching English refugees attempt
Speaker 1: to clamber aboard the small yachts she and Bess had
Speaker 1: somehow charmed their way onto. Was no doubt traumatic the
Speaker 1: welcome Georgiana was waiting for at Devonshire House would prove
Speaker 1: to be something else entirely. Quote. I have seen them,
Speaker 1: I have seen them, Georgiana wrote to her mother after
Speaker 1: being reunited with her three children at long last. Hartington
Speaker 1: is very pretty, she continued, but very cruel to me.
Speaker 1: He will not look at me or speak to me,
Speaker 1: though he kissed me a little at night. End quote.
Speaker 1: The differences in her children's demeanor were just the tip
Speaker 1: of the iceberg in terms of the changes Georgiana walked
Speaker 1: into upon her return to London. Two years seemed to
Speaker 1: have passed in the blink of an eye. Yet the
Speaker 1: truth remained that two years was vastly more significant in
Speaker 1: the eyes of her young children. Heart barely remembered his mother,
Speaker 1: and after further investigation, was discovered to be almost entirely
Speaker 1: deaf after an infection of his had been left neglected
Speaker 1: for too long without being treated. In addition to the
Speaker 1: fury that she felt on behalf of her children, Georgiana
Speaker 1: was greeted with yet another betrayal, Charles Gray was engaged
Speaker 1: to be married. Even if she had no tension of
Speaker 1: rekindling her flame with Gray, the fact that she had
Speaker 1: learned the news through the London papers and not through
Speaker 1: Gray himself, was another bruise on Georgiana's already withering ego.
Speaker 1: London may have still considered her their darling, but the
Speaker 1: Duke's forced exile had taken its toll on the Duchess's
Speaker 1: mental health. She was terrified to make any wrong moves
Speaker 1: and fear that the Duke would sent her away from
Speaker 1: her children again, which had the inverse reaction of making
Speaker 1: her somewhat of a recluse in the initial years after
Speaker 1: her return. This behavior only compounded after a series of
Speaker 1: recurring migraines, which escalated into severe swelling and ultimately lost
Speaker 1: a vision in her right eye. The treatments done by
Speaker 1: the doctors to attempt to salvage her vision verged on torture,
Speaker 1: and along with residual chronic pain, Georgiana was left with
Speaker 1: considerable scarring across her face. Upon her return, newspapers had
Speaker 1: expected Georgiana to come back to the town with nude fervor,
Speaker 1: but the combined trauma of her time away and the
Speaker 1: physical repercussions of her illness paralyzed her into a life
Speaker 1: now spent indoors. For months, she refused to see visitors,
Speaker 1: but after so much time spent in isolation, the Duchess
Speaker 1: finally began to slowly take her life back. The children
Speaker 1: were steadily improving now that she had returned, and though
Speaker 1: her illness had left her with substantial vision loss and
Speaker 1: scarring on the upper half of her face, the imperfections
Speaker 1: had an oddly liberating effect on her life. In a
Speaker 1: letter she wrote two years after her illness, she wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: I have learned, however, to love my age and not
Speaker 1: be ashamed of it, and my illness perhaps was a
Speaker 1: benefit in making me relinquish at once the ridiculous trade
Speaker 1: of an old beauty end quote. After accepting her new appearance,
Speaker 1: Georgana slowly began making her way back out into the world.
Speaker 1: She actively took part in her eldest daughter's coming out
Speaker 1: into society, but in the final years of her life,
Speaker 1: her most significant role would be in the political sphere.
Speaker 1: In her absence, the Whig Party had fallen well out
Speaker 1: of power, its main players scattered as they each attempted
Speaker 1: to push their own agendas to little avail. The Duchess
Speaker 1: would become instrumental in hosting gatherings that brought together and
Speaker 1: solidified alliances within the Whig Party for the first time
Speaker 1: since their unforgettable loss in seventeen eighty four. Following the
Speaker 1: turn of the century, Georgiana's health would steadily begin to decline,
Speaker 1: but she was determined to bring the Whig Party back
Speaker 1: to its former glory. In the end, she would live
Speaker 1: long enough to see the Whigs finally come back into
Speaker 1: power in eighteen o six, only to succumb to a
Speaker 1: liver abscess a few weeks later. Georgiana passed away in
Speaker 1: the early morning hours of March eighteen o six, with
Speaker 1: Bess and the Duke both at her bedside. Her sister
Speaker 1: wrote of her passing quote, I saw it all held
Speaker 1: her through all her struggles saw her expire, and since
Speaker 1: have again and again kissed her cold lips, and pressed
Speaker 1: her lifeless body to my heart, and yet I am
Speaker 1: alive and quote. For those closest to the Duchess, it
Speaker 1: seemed impossible that the world could possibly continue to spin
Speaker 1: onwards after the loss of such a titanic presence. Even
Speaker 1: the Duke, whose emotional bandwidth had held previously little regard
Speaker 1: to the well being of his wife, lamented her passing.
Speaker 1: They may have had their differences, but for better or worse,
Speaker 1: Georgiana had been a constant presence in his life, one
Speaker 1: that he found himself longing for now that it was gone.
Speaker 1: Of course, he still had best But in the wake
Speaker 1: of their return from France, the Duke and Bess's relationship
Speaker 1: never fully recovered from her quote betrayal of choosing Georgiana
Speaker 1: over him. Initially, after her death, Bess and the Duke
Speaker 1: went their separate ways, the Duke taking his children to
Speaker 1: their Chiswick house, while Bess went to stay with Georgiana's sister,
Speaker 1: and perhaps Georgiana had worried that after her death the
Speaker 1: Duke would cast Bess out, because, whatever the reason, even
Speaker 1: after she was gone, Georgana made certain Best would be
Speaker 1: taken care of. One of Georgiana's final actions was choosing
Speaker 1: Best to be the sole guardian of all of her
Speaker 1: papers and correspondence, and whether it was intentional or not,
Speaker 1: Bess's involvement in the goings on at Devonshire House solidified
Speaker 1: her place there, even after all of Georgiana's papers had
Speaker 1: been sorted. The Duke, after so many years attempting to
Speaker 1: distance himself from Bess after Georgiana's exile, now found himself
Speaker 1: increasingly reliant on Bess in the wake of his wife's death. Eventually,
Speaker 1: in eighteen o nine, three years after Georgiana's passing, Bess
Speaker 1: and the Duke finally married, and Bess finally became the
Speaker 1: Duchess of Devonshire. And though Bess may have finally gotten
Speaker 1: the title, she had so long been envious of. The
Speaker 1: grief that she felt the loss of her best friend
Speaker 1: was undoubtedly genuine. In a letter to her son written
Speaker 1: just a few months after Georgiana's death, quote, she is
Speaker 1: so present to me, and I am so constantly occupied
Speaker 1: by her that I feel as if she was absent
Speaker 1: on a journey. And I catch myself saying I'll tell
Speaker 1: her this end quote. Bess ended the letter to her
Speaker 1: son with a thought, no doubt shared by all of
Speaker 1: London as they grieved the loss of their duchess. Quote.
Speaker 1: Georgiana was the constant charm of my life. She doubled
Speaker 1: every joy, lessened every grief. Her society had an attraction
Speaker 1: I never met with in any other being. Her love
Speaker 1: for me was really passing the love of woman. End
Speaker 1: quote That marks the end of our two part series
Speaker 1: on the tragedy life of Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire.
Speaker 1: But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit about the legacy of Georgiana's lover, Earl Gray.
Speaker 1: Charles Gray, the young romantic wig politician who won the
Speaker 1: Duchess's heart, had not solely made it into our history
Speaker 1: books just on his association with Georgiana Cavendish. Nor was
Speaker 1: it because of his eventual rise to the office of
Speaker 1: British Prime Minister. No, despite his important role in the
Speaker 1: political sphere. Ironically, Gray's fame, his lasting fame, at least,
Speaker 1: would come from perhaps the most British thing that you
Speaker 1: can become famous for. T Following the death of his
Speaker 1: father in eighteen oh seven, Charles inherited his father's title
Speaker 1: Earl Gray. Yes, that Earl Gray. As is often the case,
Speaker 1: there are conflicting theories as to the authenticity of the
Speaker 1: ties between the Bergamot flavored black tea and the Earl.
Speaker 1: Some say that the tea was given to him as
Speaker 1: a gift by a Chinese man whose son was rescued
Speaker 1: from drowning by one of Gray's men. The Twinings Tea
Speaker 1: website claims that the Earl asked Richard Twining himself to
Speaker 1: recreate the blend after quote he was presented with the
Speaker 1: exquisite recipe by an envoy on his return from China.
Speaker 1: In the end, like most of history's tall tales, the
Speaker 1: details will likely remain lost to us. But the next
Speaker 1: time you enjoy a cup of Earl Gray, maybe take
Speaker 1: a moment to remember the man behind the tea or
Speaker 1: the woman who loved him. Noble Blood is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mank.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is hosted by me Danishwortz. Additional writing and
Speaker 1: researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward Courtney
Speaker 1: Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by rema
Speaker 1: Il Kayali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine and executive producers
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.