1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:05,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie. Listener discretion advised. It's the 3 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: middle of June eighteen thirty six and the courtroom in 4 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: London is packed. The man being publicly tried for infidelity 5 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: is as high ranking as you can be in England 6 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: short of being the King. He is the Prime Minister, 7 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: Lord Melbourne. But the woman he may have cheated on 8 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: his wife with is as much a draw as he is. 9 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:47,239 Speaker 1: She is one of the most well known women in London. 10 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:52,760 Speaker 1: A beauty, but an unusual one, dark eyed and flirtatious, 11 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:58,680 Speaker 1: and entirely too smart by nineteenth century standards. A writer 12 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: married her self to an abusive husband who, as rumor 13 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:08,200 Speaker 1: had it, had once pushed her so hard he had 14 00:01:08,240 --> 00:01:15,040 Speaker 1: caused a miscarriage. The woman's name is Caroline Norton, rumored vixen, 15 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 1: close friend, and maybe more of the Prime Minister. But 16 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: as the spectators who came to see her quickly realize, 17 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:30,960 Speaker 1: Caroline Norton isn't there in the courtroom. She's elsewhere, holed 18 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: up with her mother, away from her children, waiting for 19 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 1: a messenger's horse to gallop toward her with news of 20 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: her fate. It was only right in a way that 21 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:47,040 Speaker 1: she wasn't in the courtroom on that drizzling day in June, 22 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: because in the year eighteen thirty six in the United Kingdom, 23 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: a married woman like Caroline had no legal existence. Unmarried 24 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: women looked down upon as they were existed as legal 25 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: entities in the court system. Unmarried women had custody rights 26 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:13,079 Speaker 1: over their children born out of wedlock. But when Caroline 27 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: Norton was accused of infidelity, as far as the legal 28 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: system was concerned, she didn't exist. She could stand to 29 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:27,519 Speaker 1: lose everything, her children, her access to her earnings as 30 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 1: a writer, her social standing. Yet her legal identity was 31 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:38,160 Speaker 1: fully subsumed into her husband, and it was her truly 32 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: bad luck to be married to a man named George Norton. 33 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: Mister Norton had once asked his more popular, vivacious wife 34 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,240 Speaker 1: to use her ties with the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne 35 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:56,400 Speaker 1: to advance his own career. Now mister Norton was suing 36 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: the Prime Minister for criminal conversation with his wife. Criminal 37 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:06,720 Speaker 1: conversation or krim con was a euphemism that meant adultery. 38 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: Though it took two titango. Only men could be hauled 39 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: to court for the crime. Because Caroline Norton was married, 40 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: she couldn't be sued. She was not a legal entity. 41 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: What she was was the legal property of her husband 42 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:29,320 Speaker 1: that may have been devalued by the Prime Minister. The 43 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,960 Speaker 1: story of Caroline Norton is the tale of a bold 44 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 1: woman of the nineteenth century, a writer of sparkling wit, 45 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: trapped by the law and by the culture of her time. 46 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:45,120 Speaker 1: Never a feminist by her own description, and yet a 47 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 1: staunch campaigner for women's rights. It's the story of a 48 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 1: sad woman cut off from the children she loved by 49 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: an abusive man, and it's the tale of the long 50 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: legal battles that finally earned basic rights for women in 51 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: the United Kingdom. Caroline Norton was the popular author of 52 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: five novels and twelve poetry collections. She was the close 53 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:18,159 Speaker 1: correspondent of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. She was daughter 54 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: in a line of writers, a wife unable to obtain 55 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:26,359 Speaker 1: a divorce from an abusive husband, a loving mother who 56 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 1: adored her three boys, and a grieving woman who was 57 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: kept away from them. She was the subject of a 58 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,919 Speaker 1: ton of press and a ton of rumors. Mary Shelley 59 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:43,080 Speaker 1: called her spellbinding. The Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne called her 60 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:46,880 Speaker 1: husband a stupid brute for whom she was too headstrong. 61 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: Her own grandfather said he wouldn't want to meet her 62 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: in a dark wood. And Caroline Norton pen in hand 63 00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:00,679 Speaker 1: was behind the fight that would earn married women legal 64 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: recognition for the first time in British history. I'm Danish 65 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:16,280 Speaker 1: schwartz and this is noble blood. Caroline Norton was born 66 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Sheridan on March twenty second, eighteen eight 67 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: in London. The Sheridan family name was already famous for 68 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: both art and scandal. Her grandfather, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was 69 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: the author of the famous play The School for Scandal, 70 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:39,760 Speaker 1: an aptly titled satire of the world of social status 71 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:43,279 Speaker 1: and gossip, which might sound familiar if you listen to 72 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: our episodes on the Duchess of Devonshire, who ran the 73 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: social circle that that play was mocking. While Caroline's mother 74 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: was pregnant with her her father was convicted of criminal 75 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: conversation that had taken place before he was married, but 76 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:04,599 Speaker 1: before his mistress was married. This was the buzzed about 77 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 1: atmosphere in which dark eyed Caroline was born. Her earliest 78 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,839 Speaker 1: life was marked by tragedy. When she was only five 79 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: and a half, her father left to tend to his 80 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: health and died. After that, Caroline was sent to Scotland, 81 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: where she didn't see her mother for four years. But 82 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: everything picked up for Caroline as she entered young adulthood. 83 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,040 Speaker 1: She reunited with her mother and siblings and they all 84 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: moved to Hampton Court Palace in London. Like many young 85 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: writers to be, Caroline and her sisters wrote little books, 86 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: except unlike many young writers to be, a publisher printed 87 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: fifty copies of Caroline's book when she was about eleven 88 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: years old. She grew up as the middle of three 89 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: sisters who were known as exuberant beauties, all like men, 90 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,400 Speaker 1: eyes twinkling with the knowledge of what they were doing 91 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,119 Speaker 1: to these hapless gentlemen around them. They called to mind 92 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: the three Bronte sisters who were born about ten years later. 93 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: The Sheridan girls were just fun, more like the three 94 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: social Skuylar sisters as portrayed in the musical Hamilton. And 95 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: if we're going with the Schuylar comparison, Caroline was definitely 96 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: the Angelica. She was the wittiest, the most gossiped about, 97 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: the slyest, the most outrageous and playful, and egotistical and irreverent. 98 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: She was also the most unusual looking, it was generally agreed, 99 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,960 Speaker 1: but that only made her more captivating. She was known 100 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: to lower her big eyelids and look up from under 101 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 1: them in descriptions that remind me of little of Princess Diana. 102 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, discribed Caroline far better and 103 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: more sensuously than I could. Quote. I never saw a 104 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: woman I thought so fascinating. Had I been a man, 105 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: I should certainly have fallen in love with her. I 106 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: would have been spellbound, And had she taken the trouble, 107 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: she might have wound me round her finger. There is 108 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: something in the pretty way in which her witticisms glide, 109 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:28,600 Speaker 1: as it were, from her lips end quote. If you're 110 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: hearing a lot of famous women in the comparisons I'm 111 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:37,000 Speaker 1: making here, there's a reason bright literary Caroline was born 112 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:41,560 Speaker 1: into an era when many authors were women. Jane Austen, 113 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 1: George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Caroline's own mother. Yet any married 114 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,959 Speaker 1: woman of the era, no matter how much her own 115 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: writing earned, would find that her copyright and her earnings 116 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: belonged to her husband, and artists didn't make much of 117 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:04,360 Speaker 1: a living then or now, so the Sheridans were not rich. 118 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:09,400 Speaker 1: Caroline would have little dowry to offer a husband. That 119 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:14,320 Speaker 1: didn't matter to her first love, Ralph Levison Smith, with 120 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:17,439 Speaker 1: whom she fell in love when she was around seventeen, 121 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 1: But by her nineteenth birthday, Ralph had fallen ill and died. 122 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,560 Speaker 1: Caroline would look back on this first lost hope for 123 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:33,160 Speaker 1: decades to come, always wondering how differently her life might 124 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:35,840 Speaker 1: have been if she had been able to marry the 125 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:41,800 Speaker 1: boy she had truly loved. Instead, she married George Norton, 126 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 1: younger son in line for the title of Lord Grantly. 127 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:50,440 Speaker 1: He had been totally heartstruck over Caroline from the moment 128 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: he first laid eyes on her. She was nineteen when 129 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,720 Speaker 1: she married him, and he was twenty seven. He may 130 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,960 Speaker 1: have been obsessed with his vivacious young bride, but even 131 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:09,560 Speaker 1: so he was late to his own wedding. The Norton 132 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:13,680 Speaker 1: couple lived together in a home called Story's Gate, which 133 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,079 Speaker 1: sounds like a fairy tale, but their life wound up 134 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:21,000 Speaker 1: more like a nightmare. Things were all right at first. 135 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 1: Caroline hosted salons of high society writers and thinkers, still 136 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: able to use her sparkling wit and sly personality. George 137 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,319 Speaker 1: Norton was a member of Parliament, and he could walk 138 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:36,760 Speaker 1: from their front door to the House of Commons in 139 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: a matter of minutes. And when Caroline moved aside her 140 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: white muslin curtains and peered out her window, she could 141 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: almost see Downing Street, home of the Prime Minister. Within 142 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:54,360 Speaker 1: the span of four years, Caroline, one of three beautiful sisters, 143 00:10:54,840 --> 00:11:00,040 Speaker 1: gave birth to three sons, Fletcher, Brynn, and little Willie. 144 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:04,480 Speaker 1: Her pregnancies were called being quote on the sofa. Another 145 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: little euphemism, just like adultery, was criminal conversation. Her three 146 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 1: boys were the light of her life. She loved them dearly, deeply, 147 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: and immediately. She published books and edited magazines while caring 148 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:24,400 Speaker 1: for the babies, sounding exactly like a working writer to day. 149 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: She even wrote her own books while nursing. But it 150 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: didn't take long for George Norton's infatuation with his young, 151 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:38,559 Speaker 1: vivacious bride to be Caroline Sheridan, to turn into violent 152 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:45,240 Speaker 1: abuse toward his wife, Caroline Norton. He kicked her, shoved her, 153 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:49,840 Speaker 1: burned her hand with a tea kettle. When she miscarried 154 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,959 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty five, rumor had it he had pushed her. 155 00:11:54,679 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: She stayed away from her husband for a little while 156 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: after that, but inevitably she had to come back. She 157 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:06,199 Speaker 1: was a writer and her byeline was Missus Norton. Her 158 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:10,520 Speaker 1: earnings belonged to her husband. She was supporting him in 159 00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 1: every possible way, including when he lost his seat in Parliament. 160 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: That was when George Norton first asked his wife Caroline 161 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:24,440 Speaker 1: for help. He wanted her to use the popularity and 162 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,640 Speaker 1: charm that had first charmed him and now enraged him 163 00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:34,680 Speaker 1: to intercede with the government's Home Secretary, a certain William Lamb, 164 00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: also known as Lord Melbourne, future Prime Minister. Caroline adored 165 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: Lord Melbourne. He was a handsome, successful man, the opposite 166 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: of her husband, and he was a true bright spot 167 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: in her life, and Lord Melbourne seemed to adore the 168 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: beguiling care Norton right back. They exchanged letters that were 169 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: always friendly, often teasing, usually flirtatious, occasionally romantic. She joked 170 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: about making a future daughter of hers his second wife. 171 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:17,960 Speaker 1: His first wife, who had died a few years earlier, 172 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:22,680 Speaker 1: had been Caroline Lamb, lover of Lord Byron, whose story 173 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:26,599 Speaker 1: we have covered on this podcast. Basically everyone in this 174 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:31,480 Speaker 1: social circle was having affairs. Lord Melbourne called on Caroline 175 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:36,120 Speaker 1: Norton at home once she even gasp took his hand 176 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:41,880 Speaker 1: in parliament. They both were infatuated. At the least, they 177 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:47,559 Speaker 1: found an entrancing, exciting, sweet joy with each other. Caroline 178 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,280 Speaker 1: at least may have been in some form of love. 179 00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:55,720 Speaker 1: Lord Melbourne had already paid off a former criminal conversion charge, 180 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,000 Speaker 1: so he was certainly willing to engage in extramarital dalliances. 181 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:04,440 Speaker 1: He and Caroline may have heavy petted, they may have 182 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:09,960 Speaker 1: had sex, but there's not really concrete evidence to suggest 183 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:13,520 Speaker 1: they did. The letters between them read to me at 184 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: least like heterosexual friends with a romantic or flirtatious spark 185 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 1: between them, people who recognize that in different circumstances they 186 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 1: almost certainly would have been together. But they definitely are 187 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 1: flirtatious letters. We just don't know for a fact what 188 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,920 Speaker 1: went on with the two of them behind closed doors. 189 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:41,480 Speaker 1: Of course, flirtatious ambiguity rarely matters to an abusive husband. 190 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 1: In April eighteen forty six, George and Caroline had another 191 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:51,200 Speaker 1: of their many fights. By this time, Lord Melbourne was 192 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:55,680 Speaker 1: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Caroline didn't know how 193 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:59,440 Speaker 1: bad the fight with her husband had been until after 194 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:04,400 Speaker 1: she left to visit her sister, and upon returning, found 195 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: that her husband had taken her children away from her. 196 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:12,880 Speaker 1: Caroline Norton was a writer, a flirt, a hostess, but 197 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: more than anything. If you had asked her, she would 198 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: have said she was a mother. She adored her three 199 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: boys with an overwhelming love. I have done nothing but cry, 200 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,280 Speaker 1: she wrote to Lord Melbourne. I could hear their little 201 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:32,600 Speaker 1: feet running merrily over my head while I sat sobbing below. 202 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 1: Only the ceiling between us, and I am not able 203 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:40,040 Speaker 1: to get at them. The problem was, at the time, 204 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:45,119 Speaker 1: fathers had full custody rights to their children, the opposite 205 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:51,240 Speaker 1: of most custody disputes today, which generally favor the mother. Ironically, 206 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:56,320 Speaker 1: if Caroline had had illegitimate children with George Norton, the 207 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: children would have been herbs. But she had the bad 208 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:03,840 Speaker 1: luck of being married, and divorce was only possible by 209 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 1: an Act of Parliament, which was granted only in the 210 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:14,160 Speaker 1: rarest of cases. Between April and June, Caroline wrote to Melbourne, 211 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:19,360 Speaker 1: half despairing over her children and half fuming at her husband. 212 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:25,120 Speaker 1: Her outrage reads very modern. Quote Here is a man 213 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 1: who was mad to marry me at eighteen, who turns 214 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:32,160 Speaker 1: me out of his house nine years afterwards and inflicts 215 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:36,920 Speaker 1: vengeance as bitterly as he can end quote. And the 216 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 1: sharp knife of her writer's pen is evident when she writes, 217 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: thank god, everyone in the house hates him, so they'll 218 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:51,320 Speaker 1: tell me what's done. But it wasn't entirely true that 219 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:57,640 Speaker 1: everyone hated her husband. So when spiteful George Norton sued 220 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:02,560 Speaker 1: the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne for criminal conversation with his wife, 221 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: it wasn't at all certain that he would lose. The 222 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:11,000 Speaker 1: trial took place on June twenty second, eighteen thirty six. 223 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:15,280 Speaker 1: It was a classic drizzly day in London, but the 224 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 1: rumors came like a flood. Political cartoonist punned on Melbourne's 225 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: family name Lamb to publish lampoons in the papers. Wiggs, 226 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:32,000 Speaker 1: in Melbourne's party, accused the Tories of bringing the suit 227 00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 1: for political purposes. Pamphlet promised an extraordinary trial, damages set 228 00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 1: at ten thousand pounds three exclamation points. One more literary cameo. 229 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:49,880 Speaker 1: A twenty four year old Charles Dickens reported from the courtroom. 230 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:54,160 Speaker 1: The place was completely packed, the hot breath and sweat 231 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,560 Speaker 1: of the men in attendance mingled with the excitement in 232 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:01,600 Speaker 1: the air. They were going to hear salacious stories of 233 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:05,919 Speaker 1: the forbidden love that had sprung up between the famous 234 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:11,919 Speaker 1: literary beauty Caroline Norton and the Prime Minister himself. The 235 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,440 Speaker 1: crowd sat at the edge of their seats, their pulses racing, 236 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:19,879 Speaker 1: waiting for the scandalous details. But what the crowd heard 237 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: was lackluster. The servants and former servants of the Norton 238 00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,399 Speaker 1: household were the main witnesses, and all they could offer 239 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,960 Speaker 1: by way of evidence felt like innuendo at best. Melbourne 240 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:36,840 Speaker 1: and Caroline closed the door when they were together. Sometimes 241 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:40,280 Speaker 1: her hair looked a little out of place. Sometimes she 242 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,600 Speaker 1: washed her hands. After his visits. Melbourne once wrote her 243 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:48,080 Speaker 1: a note that said how are you without first addressing 244 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:51,479 Speaker 1: her by name. The men of the jury found it 245 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:56,520 Speaker 1: as pathetically unconvincing as you might listener. They took about 246 00:18:56,560 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 1: a minute to decide against George Norton. The prosecution had 247 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:06,879 Speaker 1: proven only conversation of the regular, non criminal sort. The 248 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 1: observers went away, disappointed, out into the moonlight. Charles Dickens 249 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:15,840 Speaker 1: would later caricature the trial in his novel The Pickwick Papers. 250 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,800 Speaker 1: So Lord Melbourne had won the trial against George Norton, 251 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:26,160 Speaker 1: he had not legally committed adultery with Caroline Norton. That 252 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: meant Caroline had won two, albeit vicariously. She was happy 253 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:35,600 Speaker 1: to emerge victorious, but the worst blow, after the loss 254 00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:39,160 Speaker 1: of her children, was still to come, and it would 255 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:43,439 Speaker 1: come from Melbourne himself. He had always counseled her to 256 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:48,120 Speaker 1: stay with her husband, to bear everything, as he put it, 257 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 1: but around the trial he went cold on her. She 258 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:58,719 Speaker 1: had loved him, however familial, romantic, consummated or unconsummated. We 259 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,639 Speaker 1: might judge that loved time to be. But now that 260 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:07,520 Speaker 1: their relationship had public consequences, Melbourne seemed to be backing off. 261 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,520 Speaker 1: In a message that feels exactly like a woman to 262 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,159 Speaker 1: day texting a man who used to care and just 263 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:20,480 Speaker 1: doesn't any more, Caroline wrote, quote, my heart sinks and 264 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,320 Speaker 1: chills at seeing how little I am to you. I 265 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,480 Speaker 1: am to be a childless mother for my supposed power 266 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,960 Speaker 1: to charm strangers, and yet the man whom I have 267 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:36,600 Speaker 1: been charming ever since I was twenty and two, well, 268 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 1: I beg pardon. I don't want to torment you. All 269 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:45,199 Speaker 1: I say is worse women have been stood by. So 270 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:50,679 Speaker 1: Caroline had, through Melbourne, won a sensational trial. But if 271 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,640 Speaker 1: she had some sense that it wasn't much of a victory, 272 00:20:54,160 --> 00:21:06,080 Speaker 1: she was absolutely right. Caroline Norton was alone after the trial. 273 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,919 Speaker 1: Caroline was publicly cleared of wrongdoing, but privately she was 274 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: still the legal extension of her abusive husband, and George 275 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,359 Speaker 1: Norton wasn't the type to keep his head held high. 276 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,240 Speaker 1: He had been publicly humiliated by his wife. After trying 277 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: to publicly humiliate his wife after the trial, he tried 278 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:33,119 Speaker 1: to change their son, Willie's name to Charles, because God 279 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: forbid their son share a first name with Lord Melbourne. 280 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,879 Speaker 1: But any and all pettiness would have been better than 281 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: the cruelty George ultimately chose. He kept Caroline's children away 282 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: from her. Her legal innocence didn't matter. She had been 283 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: an object in the krim con trial anyway, not the defendant. 284 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:59,520 Speaker 1: She was collateral damage. That meant she had never really 285 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 1: been cleared, not in George Norton's heart anyway. Caroline could 286 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: not sue for custody, As biographer Antonia Fraser explicitly states, 287 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:17,159 Speaker 1: Caroline had no legal existence outside marriage. There was nothing 288 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:22,720 Speaker 1: she could do. But Caroline Norton was a writer. No 289 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:27,679 Speaker 1: matter what, she could always write. So with strength and 290 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: fortitude I can only imagine, Caroline used her husband's own 291 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:37,480 Speaker 1: law books to study child custody. She wrote pamphlets lobbying 292 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:41,160 Speaker 1: to change the laws so that the mother could appeal 293 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 1: for custody of her children up to age seven, and finally, 294 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,639 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty nine, three years after the famous krim 295 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:55,880 Speaker 1: Con trial, the law was passed. The Infant Custody Bill 296 00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:00,680 Speaker 1: represented the first time in English history that married woman 297 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: existed as her own legal entity, But it was a 298 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:11,880 Speaker 1: hollow victory. The law applied to England, Ireland and Wales, 299 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:18,360 Speaker 1: but not to Scotland, and Caroline's almost cartoonishly villainous husband 300 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:23,600 Speaker 1: had the children in Scotland. The saddest part of the 301 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:27,760 Speaker 1: story comes next. Caroline had fought for the rights of 302 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,560 Speaker 1: women and their children. She had loved her children with 303 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,119 Speaker 1: her whole heart. She had won a victory for other women, 304 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:39,720 Speaker 1: but not for herself. And in eighteen forty two, when 305 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:43,880 Speaker 1: her youngest, Willie was nine, he fell off his pony, 306 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,120 Speaker 1: a scrape that Caroline knew in her heart she would 307 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:52,840 Speaker 1: have cared for properly, but under her husband's carelessness, the 308 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:57,600 Speaker 1: severity of the injury progressed. Even George Norton had to 309 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,639 Speaker 1: finally acknowledge that their sweet boy was very, very sick. 310 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: The moment that Caroline was called, she raced to her 311 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: baby as fast as she could. I'm coming, she thought. 312 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:13,600 Speaker 1: She tried to convey it to him across the miles, 313 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:18,760 Speaker 1: I'm coming, But her beloved youngest son was lying in 314 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,879 Speaker 1: bed when he died, calling for his mother, who was 315 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:28,760 Speaker 1: still on her way. After Willie's death, George Norton relented 316 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,480 Speaker 1: a little. Caroline did get to see her sons, Fletcher 317 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:37,199 Speaker 1: and Bryn more often. She kept writing. She maintained a 318 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:41,120 Speaker 1: friendship with Lord Melbourne until his death in eighteen forty eight. 319 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:46,160 Speaker 1: She spent time with Brinn's children, her grandchildren. She cared 320 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,920 Speaker 1: for Fletcher until his death at age thirty in eighteen 321 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:55,400 Speaker 1: fifty nine. Caroline lobbied for racial justice for the disabled 322 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: and for the poor. In eighteen seventy three, the law 323 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:03,920 Speaker 1: was chained so mothers could appeal for custody of children 324 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:09,600 Speaker 1: up to the age of sixteen, and in eighteen seventy five, 325 00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 1: at last, she was finally freed from her worst prison 326 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 1: marriage to George Norton. He died at age seventy four. 327 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,080 Speaker 1: By this point, Caroline was also in very ill health, 328 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,680 Speaker 1: but she wasn't going to let that stop her. At 329 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:30,959 Speaker 1: long last, at the age of sixty nine, she became 330 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 1: the thing she had never really been before, a bride 331 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:39,680 Speaker 1: in love. In eighteen seventy seven, the once famous dark 332 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:45,760 Speaker 1: eyed widow Caroline Norton married Sir William Sterling Maxwell. She 333 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:50,600 Speaker 1: died three months later. Nearly half a century after that, 334 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:56,320 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty five, the Guardianship of Infants Act gave 335 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:07,360 Speaker 1: mothers full equality in custody proceeds. That's the sad story 336 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:11,080 Speaker 1: of Caroline Norton and her fight for legal recognition of 337 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:15,520 Speaker 1: married women. But stick around after a brief sponsor break 338 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:20,440 Speaker 1: to hear how Caroline made her way into Parliament. After all, 339 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,120 Speaker 1: when Caroline was involved with the legal system, she had 340 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:33,360 Speaker 1: no legal rights as a married woman, She lost access 341 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:35,960 Speaker 1: to her children and the laws would not help her. 342 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:41,160 Speaker 1: She had no legal power. It was Caroline's confidante, Lord Melbourne, 343 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,440 Speaker 1: who was Prime Minister, and Caroline's husband, George Norton, who 344 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:49,800 Speaker 1: had been a member of Parliament, but Caroline Norton's image 345 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,560 Speaker 1: was to hang above where they'd all stepped in the 346 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:59,360 Speaker 1: House of Lords. In eighteen forty one, artist Daniel maclease 347 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:03,760 Speaker 1: was commited to portray the spirit of justice in a 348 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:07,719 Speaker 1: fresco for Parliament. When the time came to choose who 349 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,480 Speaker 1: would portray the figure at the center whose image would 350 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,760 Speaker 1: be used as the model of justice, macleae didn't hesitate. 351 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:21,040 Speaker 1: He chose Caroline Norton. He painted her in white robes, 352 00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:25,200 Speaker 1: holding the scales of justice, looking up toward the heavens, 353 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:29,440 Speaker 1: surrounded by a woman holding her child to her breast, 354 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:34,440 Speaker 1: an emancipated former slave, and a subdued man with a 355 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:39,360 Speaker 1: knife taken away. Caroline is the model of perfect serenity 356 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:44,119 Speaker 1: in the fresco, except if you look closely, she's not 357 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,960 Speaker 1: quite standing straight. Caroline Norton in the House of Lords 358 00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 1: has one hip, slightly insolently, even cocked forever, a little audacious, 359 00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:05,800 Speaker 1: even as she balances the scales of justice. Noble Blood 360 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,880 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild 361 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created and hosted by 362 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 1: me Dana Shports, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, 363 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: Hannah Zuick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The 364 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima 365 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:35,040 Speaker 1: Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers 366 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts 367 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:45,520 Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 368 00:28:45,560 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.