Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised.
Speaker 1: On the evening of May eighth, seventeen seventy seven, the
Speaker 1: city of London was preparing for a night of theater.
Speaker 1: Backstage at the Drury Lane Theater, costumers frantically mended seams
Speaker 1: and wrangled actors into wardrobe, while stage hands meticulously accounted
Speaker 1: for each of the props that would inevitably pass through
Speaker 1: their hands before the night was over. But as candles
Speaker 1: were lit and set pieces were placed just so beyond
Speaker 1: the thin walls of the theater, another show was already
Speaker 1: well into its first act. The doors to the Drury
Speaker 1: Lane Theater's house lobby were open, and the audience's arrivals
Speaker 1: brought with them a spectacle all their own. A seemingly
Speaker 1: endless parade of carriages lined the street outside, as women
Speaker 1: with impossibly tall hairpieces were forced to maneuver themselves with
Speaker 1: an excess of caution so as not to topple the
Speaker 1: glorified sculptures balanced precariously atop their heads. When theater goers
Speaker 1: finally managed to make their way past the front doors
Speaker 1: and into the theater lobby. Typical patrons of the Drury
Speaker 1: Lane may have been slightly puzzled at the appearance of
Speaker 1: not only so many women dressed in over the top finery,
Speaker 1: but men as well, flaunting tightly fit waistcoats and high
Speaker 1: heeled shoes, paired with almost comically small hats skewed crookedly
Speaker 1: on their heads. Opening nights were celebratory occasions, to be sure,
Speaker 1: but these types of fashion statements were excessive even for
Speaker 1: the theater, though given what they were about to watch,
Speaker 1: heightened states of dress were hardly going to be considered
Speaker 1: drama by the night's end. Technically speaking, the crowd was
Speaker 1: there to watch the opening night performance of playwright Richard
Speaker 1: Sheridan's newest play, The School for Scandal, But in the
Speaker 1: weeks leading up to the production, it had quickly become
Speaker 1: London's worst kept secret that the plot to his newest
Speaker 1: play was almost exclusively centered around the inner workings of
Speaker 1: a group of London socialites and politicians that had come
Speaker 1: to be known as the Devonshire House Circle. Not that
Speaker 1: the subject matter was exactly a stretch for the playwright.
Speaker 1: This was his own group of friends after all, As
Speaker 1: the House seats began to fill, it became glaringly obvious
Speaker 1: that the night was not going to be solely focused
Speaker 1: on the happenings on stage, Not when half of the
Speaker 1: Devonshire House circle was gleefully taking their seats in the
Speaker 1: orchestra with smug cheshire Cat grins mirrored across their faces,
Speaker 1: ready to see what part of their lives their friend
Speaker 1: Sheridan had deemed worthy of the stage, And especially not
Speaker 1: when the real life counterparts to the play's main character
Speaker 1: finally stepped through the doors of the Drury Lane Theater.
Speaker 1: At just nineteen years old, the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgana Cavendish,
Speaker 1: had the town eating out the palm of her hand.
Speaker 1: She had only been married to the Duke for two years,
Speaker 1: but considering her almost overnight meteoric rise to fame, you'd
Speaker 1: have to live under a rock or be the Duke
Speaker 1: himself not to marvel at the Duchess's ability to charm
Speaker 1: a room. Even as the curtains were drawn and actors
Speaker 1: flooded the stage as the show began in earnest, all
Speaker 1: eyes remained towards the real Duchess, especially as the play's
Speaker 1: plot unfolded to tell the plight of Lady Teazl, a
Speaker 1: young woman who had moved from the country to marry
Speaker 1: a nobleman who had absolutely no interest in his new wife.
Speaker 1: The character Lady Teazl was a woman who, still so
Speaker 1: young and innocent, was lured into the depths of depravity
Speaker 1: that festered at the core of London's high society. The
Speaker 1: other members of the Devonshire House circle delighted in seeing
Speaker 1: caricatures of themselves parade across the stage, no doubt entertained
Speaker 1: by the colorful names chosen to embody some of their
Speaker 1: circles more notorious drama magnets. You can probably guess the
Speaker 1: type of character someone named Lady Sneerwell or Snake would be.
Speaker 1: The school for Scandal would go on to be Richer,
Speaker 1: Charitan's most successful work, celebrated for its quick wit and
Speaker 1: pointed satire. However, despite its overall positive reception, there are
Speaker 1: no surviving records as to the real Duchess's candid thoughts
Speaker 1: on the production. But as Georgiana Cavendish sat in the
Speaker 1: dark opening night with the weight of the theater's eyes
Speaker 1: upon her, it's not difficult to imagine that her easy
Speaker 1: smile slowly became harder to keep up as the consequences
Speaker 1: of her all two real life choices were played out
Speaker 1: on stage before her. By the end of the night,
Speaker 1: her school for scandal counterpart Lady Teazl had managed to
Speaker 1: escape the clutches of the town relatively unscathed. But when
Speaker 1: Georgane and Cavendish finally climbed back into her carriage, ready
Speaker 1: to be taken back to Devonshire House home, filled with
Speaker 1: nothing but a childless nursery, gambling debts, and the disappointment
Speaker 1: of her husband, it's enough to make anyone wonder whether
Speaker 1: she didn't wish her night at the theater could have
Speaker 1: lasted only a little longer or ended a little differently.
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Schwartz and this is noble blood. On the
Speaker 1: day of her seventeenth birthday, young Georgiana found herself standing
Speaker 1: in a church face to face with William Cavendish, the
Speaker 1: man who would give her, quite possibly her most extravagant
Speaker 1: birthday present to date, the title Duchess of Devonshire. Seventeen
Speaker 1: years earlier, she had been born at Georgiana Spencer, the
Speaker 1: first child of John and Lady Georgiana Spencer, in Northamptonshire, England.
Speaker 1: Unlike the majority of historical figures we cover on this podcast,
Speaker 1: Georgiana had a surprisingly happy, trauma free childhood. Her parents
Speaker 1: had a successful marriage, that is to say, there are
Speaker 1: no recorded instances of affairs or illegitimate children, and because
Speaker 1: Georgiana was their oldest, she was doated on endlessly by
Speaker 1: both her parents, but especially her mother. Even after giving
Speaker 1: birth to Georgiana's two younger siblings, her mother still held
Speaker 1: a clear favoritism for her eldest daughter, telling Georgiana as
Speaker 1: a teenager quote, you are my best and dearest friend.
Speaker 1: You have my heart and may do what you will
Speaker 1: with it. So when William Cavendish, the fifth Duke of Devonshire,
Speaker 1: came knocking to pursue Georgiana's hand in marriage, Lady Spencer
Speaker 1: was understandably hesitant to let her daughter go at such
Speaker 1: a young age. She had no desire to see her
Speaker 1: daughter become a quote child bride. But Georgiana was not
Speaker 1: blind to the attention she had been receiving from the Duke,
Speaker 1: nor was she blind to the reactions his interests had
Speaker 1: elicited from her parents. A union between the Spencer and
Speaker 1: Devonshire families, two of the most powerful aristocratic families in
Speaker 1: the Whig Party, would only strengthen what political foothold they
Speaker 1: had in the English government. Even Lady Spencer could not
Speaker 1: argue against the advantage as a marriage between those two
Speaker 1: household would bring. At only sixteen years old, Georgiana was
Speaker 1: so dedicated to her parents happiness that it was barely
Speaker 1: any work for her to convince herself she had fallen
Speaker 1: in love with the powerful Duke, So what if he
Speaker 1: was a bit aloof when they met. Surely it was
Speaker 1: knacked put on around those outside his inner circle. Her
Speaker 1: father was also awkward in public settings, it made sense
Speaker 1: after they married, his real personality would shine through and
Speaker 1: the two would be hopelessly in love and live happily
Speaker 1: ever after. Well as you or anyone who has ever
Speaker 1: waited for a man to change can probably understand, the
Speaker 1: Duke did not miraculously fall in love with Georgiana after
Speaker 1: they married. If anything, William began to resent the Duchess
Speaker 1: the longer he was forced to share her company. Unlike
Speaker 1: his new wife, the Duke had no romantic ideations when
Speaker 1: it came to his Georgiana's union. He had chosen his
Speaker 1: wife with most likely the same care he had taken
Speaker 1: to hire his staff. In theory, she checked off all
Speaker 1: the right boxes. She came from a good family, was
Speaker 1: well educated, yet most importantly, was still young enough to
Speaker 1: be molded to his needs. Theoretically, in practice, the Duke
Speaker 1: would discover Georgiana, not completely dissimilar from his own demeanor,
Speaker 1: had a personality that was not so easy to change.
Speaker 1: Georgiana had spent the entirety of her life up until
Speaker 1: this point being showered in the affection and adoration of
Speaker 1: her parents. Being snubbed by her husband in every situation
Speaker 1: save his sporadic nightly visits to try to conceive an
Speaker 1: air was quickly exhausting any remaining hope she may have
Speaker 1: held for her new marriage. When she finally wrote to
Speaker 1: her mother seeking advice on how to best please her
Speaker 1: new husband, Ladies Venture replied, quote, But where a husband's
Speaker 1: delicacy and indulgence is so great that he will not
Speaker 1: say what he likes, the task becomes more difficult, and
Speaker 1: a wife must use all possible delicacy and ingenuity in
Speaker 1: trying to find out his inclinations end quote. Unfortunately, it
Speaker 1: seemed no amount of delicacy or ingenuity could change the
Speaker 1: Duke's overall ambivalence toward his new wife, leaving Georgiana with
Speaker 1: the horrifying revelation that we all saw coming. There was
Speaker 1: no happily ever after. But while the Duke could barely
Speaker 1: stand to be in the same room as his wife
Speaker 1: for longer than five minutes, the whole of London seemingly
Speaker 1: couldn't get enough of the newest addition to the House
Speaker 1: of Devonshire. It seemed that everywhere Georgiana went, for better
Speaker 1: or for worse, the Duchess couldn't help but attract attention.
Speaker 1: One woman remarked, quote she was so handsome, so agreeable,
Speaker 1: so obliging in her manner, that I am quite in
Speaker 1: love with her end quote, while another would go on
Speaker 1: to say, I think there is too much of her.
Speaker 1: She gives me the idea of being larger than life,
Speaker 1: even if the public couldn't quite agree on how they
Speaker 1: felt about their newcomer, Larger than life seems pretty accurate
Speaker 1: in terms of Georgiana's appeal to late eighteenth century London society,
Speaker 1: though larger than life could also easily describe the company
Speaker 1: she began to keep in the Devonshire House Circle. The
Speaker 1: Circle was comprised of around a hundred London politicians, artists
Speaker 1: and socialites, whose only official unifying factor remained their allegiance
Speaker 1: to the Whig Party. Unofficially, membership to the Circle was
Speaker 1: a symbol of wealth and status, one's level of import
Speaker 1: becoming synonymous with how to meet their knowledge was of
Speaker 1: the goings on in Devonshire House. A primary example of
Speaker 1: this was the use of what became known as the
Speaker 1: Cavendish drawl, an accent found nowhere else in London, let
Speaker 1: alone the rest of Great Britain except within the walls
Speaker 1: of Devonshire House. The strange affectation stretched vowel sounds in
Speaker 1: odd ways while simultaneously putting stresses on unusual syllables for
Speaker 1: seemingly no reason. It's what I can only compare to
Speaker 1: the vocal stylings of ships Creeks Moira Rose, and like
Speaker 1: Moira Rose and her strangely elitist pattern of speech, the
Speaker 1: Cavendish drawl was really just another way for the Circle
Speaker 1: to widen the divine between themselves and the rest of
Speaker 1: London society. But the divide between classes was perhaps more
Speaker 1: easily distinguished in the Circle's style of dress. For if
Speaker 1: the Devonshire House Circle had a mod know it was
Speaker 1: probably something along the lines of more is more. So,
Speaker 1: the critique that the Duchess was larger than life was
Speaker 1: not completely unwarranted, especially considering the fact that she would
Speaker 1: sometimes walk into events wearing three foot tall hairpieces, all
Speaker 1: for the sake of fashion. Even before Georgiana became the Duchess,
Speaker 1: it was in style for women's hair to be styled
Speaker 1: well above where it would naturally sit. But after months
Speaker 1: spent trying anything and everything to get the attention of
Speaker 1: her husband, I like to imagine Georgiana Cavendish wanted to
Speaker 1: be certain every other eye in London would be turned
Speaker 1: toward her. Amanda Foreman's biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire outlines
Speaker 1: some of the more extreme stylings, writing quote, she stuck
Speaker 1: pads of horsehair to her own hair and decorated the
Speaker 1: top with miniature ornaments unquote, among the most notable ornaments
Speaker 1: being waxed fruit, stuffed birds, or my personal favorite quote
Speaker 1: a pastoral tableau with little wooden, freeze and sheep unquote.
Speaker 1: Georgiana's styles would take two hairdressers multiple hours to achieve
Speaker 1: in order to reach the level of perfection she strived for,
Speaker 1: and even then the pieces would be so tall the
Speaker 1: Duchess famously had to sit on the floor of her
Speaker 1: carriage in order to arrive at her destination with the
Speaker 1: construction fully intact, and yet, despite the hair's complete impracticality,
Speaker 1: seemingly overnight, the rest of London was following suit. But
Speaker 1: Georgina's influence was not just confined to the world of fashion.
Speaker 1: Not long after The School for Scandal made its debut
Speaker 1: at the Drury Lane Theater, Georgeana anonymously published a novel
Speaker 1: titled The Sylph, loosely based on her own life as
Speaker 1: outside are marrying into a position of power and learning
Speaker 1: the problematic ways of London's aristocracy. Unlike the public's reaction
Speaker 1: to Sheridan's comparatively naive Lady Teazl, readers were scandalized by
Speaker 1: the darker thematic elements within the Self. The ton stared
Speaker 1: at the pages, simultaneously enraptured and horrified. The novel depicted
Speaker 1: a relationship between an abusive husband who blamed his wife
Speaker 1: for the miscarriage of their child. The veil of anonymity
Speaker 1: was already thin to begin with, since most of the
Speaker 1: names in the novel bore a very close resemblance to
Speaker 1: their real life counterparts, but the darker themes running throughout
Speaker 1: were enough to give readers pause. Surely this could not
Speaker 1: be rumored to be written by the same duchess whose
Speaker 1: fashions paraded through all of London society pages. But if
Speaker 1: it was, what else was Georgiana cavn is hiding and
Speaker 1: what was really going on within the walls of Devonshire
Speaker 1: house quote The pretty Duchess of Devonshire, who by all
Speaker 1: accounts has no faults but delicate health in my mind,
Speaker 1: dines at seven summer as well as winter, goes to
Speaker 1: bed at three and lies in bed till four. She
Speaker 1: has hysterical fits in the morning and dances in the evening.
Speaker 1: She bathes, rides and dances for ten days and lies
Speaker 1: in bed the next ten end quote. This account of
Speaker 1: the Duchess's behavior by one of her close friends probably
Speaker 1: most accurately sums up her existence in the early years
Speaker 1: of her marriage. If there was one constant in Georgiana's life,
Speaker 1: it would be the inconsistency in which she chose to
Speaker 1: live it. The Duchess's popularity wasn't without its pitfalls. Beneath
Speaker 1: the towering wigs and charming disposition, Georgiana was, at any
Speaker 1: moment one carefully crafted's sile away from social ruin. In
Speaker 1: the months since her wedding, lacking any love or validation
Speaker 1: from her husband, Georgiana found solace in gambling tables across London.
Speaker 1: If the nights of constant inebriation weren't enough of a
Speaker 1: stress on her body, the sudden onslaught of gambling debts
Speaker 1: made sure even her sober hours were tormented with near
Speaker 1: constant anxiety. In the span of a few short months,
Speaker 1: Georgiana had accumulated thousands of pounds of debt, which she
Speaker 1: had assumed the Duke would forgive after she gave him
Speaker 1: a Devonshire air. Only that was another problem. Georgiana had
Speaker 1: little troubled getting pregnant, but remaining so proved tragically difficult.
Speaker 1: One miscarriage quickly turned to two, then three, and by
Speaker 1: the fourth the Duke began to blame his wife for
Speaker 1: the failed pregnancies, and while her late nights out and
Speaker 1: excessive alcohol consumption probably didn't help matters, I think it's
Speaker 1: important to remember that up until the nineteen seventies, there
Speaker 1: was little to no discourse on the negative effects of
Speaker 1: alcohol on pregnant bodies. So though her ventures into London
Speaker 1: night life, made from our point of view, with over
Speaker 1: two hundred years worth of additional medical hindsight, look ill advised,
Speaker 1: it wasn't understood as to be as cut and dry
Speaker 1: as we see it today. Regardless, after eight years with
Speaker 1: a perpetually empty nursery, in seventeen eighty two, the Duke
Speaker 1: and Georgiana decided to take a trip to Bath in
Speaker 1: the hopes that the town's healing waters would cure the
Speaker 1: Duchess of whatever was keeping her from having a healthy child.
Speaker 1: And though the couple would not find the miracle cure
Speaker 1: for the Duchess's infertility, by the end of their stay,
Speaker 1: one more person would be returning to Devonshire House with them.
Speaker 1: Unlike most who aim to visit Bath, Lady Elizabeth Foster,
Speaker 1: or Bess as she was known to her friends, had
Speaker 1: not traveled to the small country town in search of
Speaker 1: healing cures. Recently Separated from her husband, Foster suddenly found
Speaker 1: herself at a bitter crossroads in her life. Her husband
Speaker 1: retained custody of their two children and left her with
Speaker 1: no money to support herself, leaving Bess Foster with no
Speaker 1: choice but to stay with an aunt in Bath. Upon
Speaker 1: her initial introduction to the Devonshire's, the Duchess was immediately
Speaker 1: taken by the unfortunate tale of the all but destitute
Speaker 1: best Foster. Georgiana was more than ready to shower her
Speaker 1: new friend in all the love and affection she had
Speaker 1: been so far unable to give out in her own
Speaker 1: home to her husband. Given what we know about Georgiana's
Speaker 1: extroverted tendencies, this is probably less than surprising. But what
Speaker 1: was surprising was the Duke, against all odds, also similarly
Speaker 1: became enamored with their newest acquaintance, so much so that
Speaker 1: by the end of their summer in Bath, an invitation
Speaker 1: was extended to Bess to return to the city with them. Now,
Speaker 1: the Devonshire House Circle was no stranger to the concepts
Speaker 1: of sex or scandal, but even so, Bess's arrival in
Speaker 1: London created a commotion the likes of which had even
Speaker 1: members of the circle clutching their pearls. Word within the
Speaker 1: circle traveled faster over drinks and gambling tables than printing
Speaker 1: presses could ever hope to keep up with, and it
Speaker 1: didn't take long for the town to make assumptions as
Speaker 1: to why the newest member of Devonshire House had found
Speaker 1: herself with nowhere else to go. Typically, in eighteenth century
Speaker 1: marital separations, it was not uncommon for husbands to maintain
Speaker 1: custody of children. However, it was uncommon for the separated
Speaker 1: wife to receive no monetary compensation with which to support herself.
Speaker 1: The only instances of this occurring usually indicated some sort
Speaker 1: of quote wrongdoing on the side of the wife, most
Speaker 1: commonly an instance of infidelity. So with rumors of Bess's
Speaker 1: infidelity against her former husband flying across the Ton, it
Speaker 1: only makes sense that the next rumor would be speculation
Speaker 1: as to the exact nature of her relationship with the
Speaker 1: Duke and Duchess. After all, in the entirety of the
Speaker 1: eight years the Duke and Duchess had been married, when
Speaker 1: had they ever agreed on anything as a couple, And
Speaker 1: out of all aspects of a marriage to finally settle on,
Speaker 1: the first thing is bringing another woman into their home,
Speaker 1: and they really expected the Devonshire House circle the bona
Speaker 1: fide poster children for extra marital affairs and sex game
Speaker 1: indals to believe that nothing nefarius was going on. Even now,
Speaker 1: nearly two hundred and fifty years after the fact, scholars
Speaker 1: and casual historians can't help but to speculate as to
Speaker 1: what exactly happened behind closed doors at Devonshire House. Of Course,
Speaker 1: the most popular theory, if only because it remains the
Speaker 1: lowest hanging fruit, is there infamously rumored Minagata. And while
Speaker 1: the idea of this dysfunctional throutle is enticing in its
Speaker 1: inherent drama, I'm sorry to inform you the specific threesome
Speaker 1: most likely never happened. It's true the Duke and Duchess
Speaker 1: both independently loved Best, but it's evident through their various
Speaker 1: correspondences that their love was not intertwined in any sort
Speaker 1: of capacity. In fact, it was Best His ability to
Speaker 1: morph into what the Duke and what Georgana needed as
Speaker 1: individuals at any and moment that made her so indispensable
Speaker 1: to their relationship. For Georgiana, Best became an invaluable confidante
Speaker 1: for her, event all frustrations regarding her loveless merit with
Speaker 1: the Duke. Of course, the undeniable closeness between the two
Speaker 1: women would give birth to the possibility. The second most
Speaker 1: popular rumor as to the goings on at Devonshire House
Speaker 1: a lesbian love affair between Bess and Georgiana. And while
Speaker 1: this claim, in my opinion, still lack sufficient evidence, there
Speaker 1: is no mistaking the strength of devotion between these two women.
Speaker 1: Quote who has any right to know how long or
Speaker 1: how tenderly we love one another? Georgiana wrote in a
Speaker 1: letter to Best. Following public speculation of their relationship, she
Speaker 1: continued writing, quote, does the warm impulse of two hearts
Speaker 1: want an excuse to be accounted for? And must your
Speaker 1: partiality to me be ushered in by another connection? Of course,
Speaker 1: the instance of quote another connection a k a. A
Speaker 1: supposed sexual relationship can't be confirmed by something so flimsy
Speaker 1: as this. But ironically, the majority of scholarly discourse on
Speaker 1: the nature of their relationship stems from the letters historians
Speaker 1: have never been able to read. At some point in
Speaker 1: the last two hundred years, someone close to the Devonsures
Speaker 1: went through all of the records of their correspondence, censoring
Speaker 1: and destroying anything they saw as potentially harmful to the
Speaker 1: family's legacy, which unfortunately, had the opposite effect of making
Speaker 1: curious parties speculate wildly as to what could have been
Speaker 1: so damning as to necessitate such extreme censorship. Ultimately, the
Speaker 1: full extent of Georgiana and Bess's relationship will remain a mystery,
Speaker 1: but in my personal opinion, given these sexual proclivities associated
Speaker 1: with the Devonshire House circle, it's entirely possible their relationship
Speaker 1: may have, at one point or another blurred its lines.
Speaker 1: But the fact remains, whatever their romantic relationship may or
Speaker 1: may not have been, the two undoubtedly shared a deep
Speaker 1: emotional connection that persisted throughout their lives. With Bess's comforting presence,
Speaker 1: Georgiana began to ease on her drinking and late nights,
Speaker 1: and soon found herself pregnant once again, and finally, after
Speaker 1: nine years of marriage, in seventy three, Georgiana gave birth
Speaker 1: to her first healthy child, and the whole of Devonshire
Speaker 1: House took a collective sigh of relief. The child may
Speaker 1: have been, to the Duke's disappointment, a girl, but her
Speaker 1: birth proved Georgiana could eventually give birth to a healthy air,
Speaker 1: and with her best friend at her side, it seemed
Speaker 1: as if the loveless marriage she had once felt trapped
Speaker 1: in no longer had such a suffocating hold on her life.
Speaker 1: That is until just over a year later, when, within
Speaker 1: weeks of discovering that she was once again pregnant, Georgiana
Speaker 1: would come to the life altering realization that she was
Speaker 1: not the only woman in Devonshire House carrying the Duke's child.
Speaker 1: Now remember earlier when I said it was Bess's ability
Speaker 1: to morph into the specific needs of both the Duke
Speaker 1: and Duchess that made her so invaluable to them. Well,
Speaker 1: Following the death of the Duke's longtime mistress, the Duke
Speaker 1: was left with a romantic void in his life that
Speaker 1: he would have sooner worn one of his wife's three
Speaker 1: foot wigs than try to let her fill. But any
Speaker 1: doubt in his wife's judge of character was swiftly forgotten
Speaker 1: upon his introduction to Lady Elizabeth Foster on that faithful
Speaker 1: trip to Bath. Best may have come into Devonshire House
Speaker 1: as Georgiana's close friend, but she was no fool. She
Speaker 1: was in no rush to return to her life, waiting
Speaker 1: for her father to dole out pennies while she lived
Speaker 1: with her aunt in the country, So when she saw
Speaker 1: how the loneliness of the Devonshire marriage was not only
Speaker 1: affecting Georgiana but the Duke himself, Bess was quick to
Speaker 1: make herself available as a source of comfort to both
Speaker 1: sides of the unhappy marriage. But fast forward three years
Speaker 1: and an unplanned pregnancy later, and Georgiana's world was once
Speaker 1: again crumbling to pieces around her. In the wake of
Speaker 1: Bess's betrayal, Georgiana once again began indulging in a few
Speaker 1: of her more self destructive vices, namely deepening the pit
Speaker 1: of debt she'd already dug herself into gambling across London,
Speaker 1: and when her second successful pregnancy yielded yet another girl
Speaker 1: instead of the air her husband needed from her, the
Speaker 1: Duchess's nearly hundred thousand pounds in debt or roughly six
Speaker 1: million pounds in today's money suddenly became ground for the
Speaker 1: Duke to demand a marital separation. But where Bess had
Speaker 1: previously stepped in on the Duchess's behalf to plead with
Speaker 1: the Duke for leniency, Best found that the dynamic between
Speaker 1: the group had shifted following the birth of her own
Speaker 1: illegitimate daughter, with the Duke Best no longer felt the
Speaker 1: need to display the same undying loyalty toward Georgiana that
Speaker 1: she had before, or at least pretended that she had before.
Speaker 1: Maybe Best was bitter that female or not, george Jana's
Speaker 1: daughters were allowed to live under the same roof as her,
Speaker 1: unlike her own newborn daughter, who she was forced to
Speaker 1: leave behind with a foster family. Maybe she realized Georgiana's
Speaker 1: hold on the title of Duchess was steadily slipping through
Speaker 1: her fingers, and maybe Bess wanted to be the one
Speaker 1: ready to take up the mantle. Maybe Bess was tired
Speaker 1: of living off those who deemed her worthy of the
Speaker 1: scraps they allotted her. In the end, Bess's cold shoulder
Speaker 1: wouldn't matter. Even if the Duke chose to leave his
Speaker 1: wife for good. There was almost no scenario that saw
Speaker 1: Best living the same privileged life Georgiana enjoyed as the Duchess.
Speaker 1: Despite her insurmountable debts, Georgiana was still undeniably popular in
Speaker 1: the public eye. The Devonshire House circle would surely ostracize
Speaker 1: any other woman that usurped their beloved Georgiana, especially another
Speaker 1: woman who had claimed to be Georgiana's closest friend. In
Speaker 1: other words, the public was squarely hashtag team Georgiana. For
Speaker 1: his part, the Duke was reluctantly coming to a similar realization.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for his wallet, gambling away the family is state
Speaker 1: was not sufficient grounds for divorce. Now, if Georgiana had,
Speaker 1: let's say, had an affair, the Duke may have had
Speaker 1: more of a case. But unlike her husband, she had
Speaker 1: remained unwaveringly faithful through the course of their marriage. Of course,
Speaker 1: up until this point, Georgiana had yet to meet the young,
Speaker 1: passionate wig politician who would forever alter the course of
Speaker 1: her life, a man named Charles Gray. That marks the
Speaker 1: end of our first episode on Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess
Speaker 1: of Devonshire. Next week we'll be back with part two,
Speaker 1: but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a connection Georgiana has with another royal. You may know
Speaker 1: now if Georgiana's made a name, Spencer immediately set off
Speaker 1: alarm bells in the royal obsessed part of your brain.
Speaker 1: I commend you on your encyclopedic knowledge of British royal lineage.
Speaker 1: For everyone else, allow me to explain a little over
Speaker 1: two hundred years after Georgiana Spencer was plucked from relative
Speaker 1: obscurity to become the Duchess of Devonshire, another Spencer would
Speaker 1: similarly shed her maiden name and shed her previously quiet
Speaker 1: existence for a title that would make her a household name. Overnight,
Speaker 1: Georgiana's great great great great niece, Diana Spencer, would marry
Speaker 1: Prince Charles in nine and become Diana, Princess of Wales.
Speaker 1: In the years since Princess Diana's marriage into the royal
Speaker 1: family and tragically untimely death, historians and tabloids alike have
Speaker 1: taken to comparing the two iconic women who forever left
Speaker 1: an imprint on their respective cultural landscapes. And while it's
Speaker 1: true both became unmistakable style icons, both stuck in unhappy marriages,
Speaker 1: both married to indifferent husbands even as they were adored
Speaker 1: by the public, I think it's also impossible to compare
Speaker 1: the two women without also taking into account the role
Speaker 1: that the tabloid media had in their lives. Interesting, isn't it. However?
Speaker 1: Two centuries can pass, and yet the press still finds
Speaker 1: itself reliant on the toxic cycle of building up women
Speaker 1: to fit on impossibly high pedestals just so they can
Speaker 1: relish their inevitable falls. It's enough to make you wonder
Speaker 1: how much of these women's lives were dictated by worry
Speaker 1: about what would be printed the next day, and how
Speaker 1: different their lives might have been had the press decided
Speaker 1: to tell a different story. Ye Noble Blood is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danis Shwartz.
Speaker 1: Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Speaker 1: Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is
Speaker 1: produced by rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thane
Speaker 1: and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.