Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2: If you're a regular listener to the show and you
Speaker 2: listen to the episodes in order, you have heard me
Speaker 2: talk about getting into a topic that was unwieldy, and
Speaker 2: so I dropped it immediately to instead do an episode
Speaker 2: on electro cardiograms. Now we have come to the unwieldy topic.
Speaker 2: For a very long time, novelist Edward Bulwert Lytton has
Speaker 2: been lingering on my shortlist. His eighteen thirty novel Paul
Speaker 2: Clifford started with the words it was a dark and
Speaker 2: stormy night. Believe it or not, he was not the
Speaker 2: first person ever to publish that phrase, but afterward it
Speaker 2: became widely used and reused and satirized and lampooned, and
Speaker 2: it even spawned the bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest for Bad
Speaker 2: First Sentences, which was held at San Jose State University for.
Speaker 1: Forty two years.
Speaker 2: I really knew zero about Edward Bowler Lytton besides that
Speaker 2: one thing, and so I was just kind of like
Speaker 2: that guy, what was his deal there was in the shortlist.
Speaker 2: More recently, I was trying to figure out if I
Speaker 2: had access to enough information to do an episode on
Speaker 2: Bianca Cappello, who was the sixteenth century Grand Duchess Consort
Speaker 2: of Tuscany. Her life is described as full of scandal.
Speaker 2: Horace Walpole, who we covered on the show back in October,
Speaker 2: was talking about a painting of her when he coined
Speaker 2: the word serendipity. So that quest led me to Edward
Speaker 2: Bulwer Lytton's wife, Rosina, who wrote a historical novel about
Speaker 2: Bianca Cappello in eighteen forty three, and it did not
Speaker 2: take long for Rose to take her husband's place on
Speaker 2: my short list and then to move up to the
Speaker 2: top to do an episode. Edward is still a big
Speaker 2: part of this episode, though, because it is really about
Speaker 2: their marriage and their separation. According to Rosina, Edward was
Speaker 2: abusive and he definitely had multiple affairs, and because married
Speaker 2: women in England really had no legal status independently of
Speaker 2: their husband, Rosina's options in this were incredibly limited. She
Speaker 2: wrote that novel because she was trying to make ends
Speaker 2: meet in the wake of their separation. This turned into
Speaker 2: a two parter Today's episode is about Rosina's early life
Speaker 2: and the early years of her relationship with Edward up
Speaker 2: to their separation. Again, that story is going to involve abuse,
Speaker 2: and then on Wednesday we will talk about their decades
Speaker 2: of living in separation and Rosina's very embittered writing about it.
Speaker 2: Rosina Doyle Wheeler was born on November fourth, eighteen oh two,
Speaker 2: in County Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of Francis
Speaker 2: Massey Wheeler and Anna Doyle Wheeler. Francis and Anna had
Speaker 2: six children together, but only two of them survived their infancy,
Speaker 2: Rosina and her older sister, Henrietta, who was born in
Speaker 2: eighteen oh one. Anna Wheeler was known to be clever, witty,
Speaker 2: well read, and extremely beautiful. She was self educated and
Speaker 2: that education included things like French philosophy and the writing
Speaker 2: of Mary Wolstoncraft. Anna became an advocate for cooperative socialism
Speaker 2: and for women's rights, and she also co authored a
Speaker 2: work called Appeal of one half of the Human Race,
Speaker 2: Women against the pretensions of the other half men to
Speaker 2: retain them in political and hence in civil and domestic slavery.
Speaker 2: In reply to a paragraph of mister Mill's celebrated article
Speaker 2: on government. Her co author in this piece was William Thompson.
Speaker 2: Anna and William didn't write this until eighteen twenty five,
Speaker 2: when Rosina was already an adult, but it does help
Speaker 2: illustrate the political and legal position of women in the
Speaker 2: UK at this point, and the kinds of opinions Rosina
Speaker 2: would have been exposed to through her mother. The paragraph
Speaker 2: that Anna and William were responding to was written by
Speaker 2: James Mill in an essay on government that was printed
Speaker 2: in Encyclopedia Britannica. That paragraph read quote, one thing is
Speaker 2: pretty clear that all those individuals whose interests are indisputably
Speaker 2: included in those of other individuals may be struck off
Speaker 2: from political rights without inconvenience. In this light may be
Speaker 2: viewed all children up to a certain age whose interests
Speaker 2: are involved in those of their parents. In this light,
Speaker 2: women may also be regarded the interest of almost all
Speaker 2: of whom is involved either in that of their fathers
Speaker 2: or in that of their husbands. Ill co written by
Speaker 2: Anna Wheeler and William Thompson, calls this paragraph offensive and
Speaker 2: anti social. The introduction to the appeal is framed as
Speaker 2: a letter from Thompson to Wheeler, and it read in
Speaker 2: part quote, You look forward, as I do, to a
Speaker 2: state of society very different from that which now exists,
Speaker 2: in which the effort of all is to outwit, supplant
Speaker 2: and snatch from each other. Where interest is systematically opposed
Speaker 2: to duty, where the so called system of morals is
Speaker 2: little more than a mass of hypocrisy preached by knaves,
Speaker 2: unpracticed by them to keep their slaves male as well
Speaker 2: as female, in blind, uninquiring obedience, And where the whole
Speaker 2: Botley fabric is kept together by fear and blood. You
Speaker 2: look forward to a better aspect of society, where the
Speaker 2: principle of benevolence shall supersede that of fear, Where restless
Speaker 2: and anxious individual competition shall give place to mutual cooperation
Speaker 2: and joint possession. Where individuals in large numbers, male and female,
Speaker 2: forming voluntary associations shall become a mutual guarantee to each
Speaker 2: other for the supply of all useful wants, and form
Speaker 2: an unsalaried and uninsolvent insurance company against all ensurable casualties.
Speaker 2: Where perfect freedom of opinion and perfect equality will reign
Speaker 2: amongst the cooperators, and where the children of all will
Speaker 2: be equally educated and provided for by the whole, even
Speaker 2: these children longer the slaves of individual caprice.
Speaker 1: This piece noted that quote, the interests of men and
Speaker 1: women are so involved in each other that political power
Speaker 1: possessed by the one must be impartially used for the
Speaker 1: benefit of both. But it also made a rhetorical argument
Speaker 1: that if political power had to rest only with one sex,
Speaker 1: then it should be women, because women were the weaker
Speaker 1: party and would not be able to overlook the needs
Speaker 1: of men the way men were able to overlook the
Speaker 1: needs of women.
Speaker 2: Anna Wheeler's thoughts on marriage were partially informed by her
Speaker 2: own marriage. She and Frances got married when they were
Speaker 2: both still in their teens. Her family, when they found
Speaker 2: out about this relationship, had proposed to send her to London,
Speaker 2: not necessarily to separate them, but just to give her
Speaker 2: more time to grow up and to learn her own
Speaker 2: mind before getting married, but that suggestion had just led
Speaker 2: her to double down on her insistence that they get
Speaker 2: married immediately. Frances seems to have been outwardly amiable, but
Speaker 2: he also drank excessively and his behavior could be threatening.
Speaker 2: According to Rosina's account, when she was born, her mother's
Speaker 2: attendants were terrified to tell Francis that she was a girl,
Speaker 2: because he had been so adamant about wanting a son
Speaker 2: that they were legitimately scared of what his reaction would be.
Speaker 2: In eighteen twelve, Anna left to Francis and she took
Speaker 2: Henrietta and Rosina with her. They went to Guernsey, where
Speaker 2: Anna's uncle, Sir John Doyle, was Lieutenant Governor. He had
Speaker 2: been something of a surrogate father to Anna after her
Speaker 2: own father's death. Mother and daughters moved into rooms at
Speaker 2: the Government House, which was a lot more lavish than
Speaker 2: where they'd been living in Kilross, Ireland. The girls had
Speaker 2: a French governess and an assortment of tutors, and Rosina
Speaker 2: described the atmosphere of the house as quote sort of
Speaker 2: perpetual saturnalia that was allowed, unchecked to go on. She
Speaker 2: also developed a flare for mimicry, imitating their governess and
Speaker 2: their tutors and various guests who came to the Government House.
Speaker 2: While this was a financially comfortable situation, Rosina still found
Speaker 2: these years difficult. Henrietta was clearly their mother's favorite, and
Speaker 2: Rosina later wrote, quote, I soon became that most miserable
Speaker 2: of created beings, the neglected sister of a favorite and
Speaker 2: favored child. Not that I envied Henrietta for being loved, indulged,
Speaker 2: and privileged on all occasions, For it was impossible not
Speaker 2: to love one so gentle, so gifted, and so good.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a matter of course that everyone
Speaker 2: must do. So still I did long for a little
Speaker 2: of my mother's love. The family left Guernsey in eighteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: and we'll get to that after a sponsor break. Sir
Speaker 2: John Doyle left office as Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey in
Speaker 2: eighteen sixteen, so at that point the family no longer
Speaker 2: had a place at the government house. Rosina and Henrietta
Speaker 2: were sent to a private school in Kensington in London,
Speaker 2: while their mother went to France. Their animde connections to socialists,
Speaker 2: activists and philosophers, and she was nicknamed the Goddess of Reason.
Speaker 2: She started to call for a redistribution of wealth that
Speaker 2: will allow women to live independently of men. In eighteen twenty,
Speaker 2: Rosina's father, Francis died and her older sister Henrietta inherited
Speaker 2: his property in Ireland. Their mother started supplementing her income
Speaker 2: with writing, lecturing, and translating work from French.
Speaker 1: There's not a.
Speaker 2: Lot of detail about the next few years of Versina's life,
Speaker 2: but in October of eighteen twenty five she met Edward
Speaker 2: George Earl Lytton Bulwer. He's known as Edward bulwerd Lytton today,
Speaker 2: but that is a name change that happened a little later.
Speaker 2: Edward was freshly returned from France. He had his hair
Speaker 2: and ringlets, and he was carrying a cane and decked
Speaker 2: out in French attire that wouldn't become fashionable in England
Speaker 2: for another few years. Rosina described him as quote unmistakably gentlemanlike,
Speaker 2: and he had a reputation for being simultaneously a dandy
Speaker 2: and an intollal. Edward's acquaintances included novelist Lady Caroline Lamb,
Speaker 2: who had become famous in part for her relationship with
Speaker 2: George Gordon Lord Byron, who had died the previous year.
Speaker 2: She's the person who described Lord Byron as mad, bad
Speaker 2: and dangerous to know, according to Rosina's notations on Edward's
Speaker 2: letters later on, at one point Caroline told her, quote,
Speaker 2: don't let Edward Bulwer hunt you down. They are a
Speaker 2: bad set. After meeting at a social event, Rosina and
Speaker 2: Edwards started corresponding. For the most part, Edward's letters are
Speaker 2: the ones that we have today. There are some published
Speaker 2: collections of Rosina's letters, but they're not widely available in
Speaker 2: the United States, and they are mostly letters to other people.
Speaker 2: In his letters, Edward seems deeply enamored. Here's an example
Speaker 2: of something that he wrote to Rosina. Quote, I have
Speaker 2: twice begun to write, and twice I have destroyed what
Speaker 2: I have written. This same restraint which oppressed me in speaking,
Speaker 2: seems to operate also upon this method of uttering. The
Speaker 2: feelings you have inspired, no matter their nature, you have discovered, love, admiration,
Speaker 2: passion are not the less deeply felt for being imperfectly expressed.
Speaker 2: The trembling of the voice, the embarrassment of manner, the
Speaker 2: difficulty of expression, which diminished the eloquence due justice, at
Speaker 2: least to the reality of feeling. From the first moment
Speaker 2: I saw you, I was attracted towards you. The sentiments
Speaker 2: you inspired carried me back to years of more fresh
Speaker 2: and unsullied remembrance. They had no place among the ordinary
Speaker 2: attachments which the world had more lately afforded me. I
Speaker 2: could not define their nature. I could not reason them away.
Speaker 2: In another letter later on, he wrote, Oh, my dear Rose,
Speaker 2: where shall I find words to express my love for you?
Speaker 2: Your kiss still dwells upon my lips, My hand still
Speaker 2: thrills beneath your touch, and your breath still lingers on
Speaker 2: my remembrance. Fraught, indeed with more treasures than in India Sea.
Speaker 2: Eventually he started addressing his letters with endearments like my
Speaker 2: dearest Rose and darlingest Poodle, which I must admit I
Speaker 2: find kind of fun and affecting a sort of baby
Speaker 2: talk writing style, like writing the word you as ooh
Speaker 2: two o's yes as they got into the baby talk,
Speaker 2: which is also the way that you might talk to
Speaker 2: like a puppy that you're feeling very affectionately toward. I
Speaker 2: found them. I was having like the vicarious embarrassment response
Speaker 2: to reading them. A number of people have described them
Speaker 2: in words like embarrassing and cringey. Edward, though, also wrote
Speaker 2: a lot about his mother, Elizabeth Warburton Lytton, and his
Speaker 2: fears that she would not approve of his relationship with Resina.
Speaker 2: His father, William Earle Bulwer, had died when he was
Speaker 2: only four, and by then Edward's older brothers had been
Speaker 2: sent away to school, so it was just him and
Speaker 2: his mom. His mother treated him almost like an only child.
Speaker 2: He was her favorite, and she doted on him and
Speaker 2: gave him an extravagant allowance, but that allowance was totally
Speaker 2: at her prerogative. The only money he was actually legally
Speaker 2: guaranteed was two hundred pounds a year from his father's will,
Speaker 2: so Edward was really afraid of his mother cutting him off.
Speaker 2: Rosina's sister, Henrietta, died in May of eighteen twenty six,
Speaker 2: and Rosina inherited their father's property in Ireland at that point.
Speaker 2: One of Edward's letters around this time attempted to console
Speaker 2: her both about her sister's death and the state of
Speaker 2: her relationship with her mother. Quote, your alienation from your
Speaker 2: sister seems formerly to have given you much pain. Now
Speaker 2: that very fact makes your consolation. Separation from your mother
Speaker 2: threw you into a situation which, to say the least,
Speaker 2: was disadvantageous and unpleasant. But had you gone with her
Speaker 2: to Paris, it is more than probable that we should
Speaker 2: never have met. Let me trust that the last event
Speaker 2: will not be the most unfortunate in your life. Sometime
Speaker 2: in the months surrounding her sister's death, Rosina and Edward
Speaker 2: became engaged, and his letters to her at this point
Speaker 2: still sounded just besotted. Here's one quote, my darling, darling,
Speaker 2: love and poodle. The more I think of you, the
Speaker 2: more I love you. I dote upon you, even to madness,
Speaker 2: your beauty so singularly perfect, your kind, noble, warm heart,
Speaker 2: your temper so feeling, yet so subdued, Your generous and
Speaker 2: devoted love, which my unworthiness, not my reason ever questions,
Speaker 2: all impress themselves upon my mind. The deeper in proportion
Speaker 2: to the consideration they receive. I see other women, I
Speaker 2: turn from them, wearied and disgusted, because I compare them
Speaker 2: with you. All that this world offers only seems to
Speaker 2: me weary, stale, and unprofitable compared with one recollection of you.
Speaker 1: Edward's mother did not know about the engagement, but she
Speaker 1: and Rosina had met, and it was clear to Edward
Speaker 1: that his mother did not approve of Rosina. In general.
Speaker 1: Estimates of the value of the property that Rosina had
Speaker 1: inherited in Ireland are really all over the place, but
Speaker 1: it seems like it might have given her an income
Speaker 1: of about three hundred pounds a year, so she wasn't penniless,
Speaker 1: but she definitely wasn't wealthy or even financially comfortable. She
Speaker 1: was also irish and outspoken, and at six months older
Speaker 1: than Edward, too old in his mother's opinion. Rosina was
Speaker 1: also extremely beautiful, and even that was somehow suspect. In
Speaker 1: September of eighteen twenty, Edward wrote Rezina a letter in
Speaker 1: which he talked about his ambitions for the future. His
Speaker 1: mother wanted him to distinguish himself, and he thought that
Speaker 1: if he did that, then she could have no objection
Speaker 1: to anybody that he might want to marry. He thought
Speaker 1: he might earn this distinction by becoming a Member of Parliament,
Speaker 1: but there were income and property ownership requirements for MPs
Speaker 1: that he did not meet, so he thought he might
Speaker 1: make up the difference but in income requirements by writing.
Speaker 1: So that became the plan. He would earn enough money
Speaker 1: through writing to become eligible to be an MP. He
Speaker 1: would get elected, and then he would disclose his engagement
Speaker 1: to his mother, and then they would get married. In
Speaker 1: my head, there's a cartoon where he has a flow
Speaker 1: chart of how his life is going to work does
Speaker 1: kind of seem that way. I mean, so much of
Speaker 1: it depends on things he cannot control, working out exactly
Speaker 1: as he plans right. In October eight, eighteen twenty six,
Speaker 1: Edward told his mother about the engagement, even though he
Speaker 1: had not yet sold his first novel. This did not
Speaker 1: go well, and Edward described a letter his mother had
Speaker 1: written him this way quote, there is not in this
Speaker 1: letter one kind expression to redeem its want of almost
Speaker 1: human consideration for my feelings, and it ends with saying
Speaker 1: that if I marry, I should have not her consent,
Speaker 1: but her curse. The next several months of Edward and
Speaker 1: Rosina's relationship sound chaotic and stressful. Edward was trying to
Speaker 1: write a book, and Rosina was reading his drafts and
Speaker 1: offering her opinions while also doing some writing work of
Speaker 1: her own. Knowledge of his mother's disapproval seemed to just
Speaker 1: underpin everything that they did. Edward's mother also allegedly sent
Speaker 1: people to Ireland's to investigate Rosina's family. There, the couple
Speaker 1: kept setting dates for a wedding and then postponing it,
Speaker 1: and at least three times Rosina called the engagement off entirely,
Speaker 1: but then they resumed the relationship. Edward sold his first novel, Falkland,
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty seven. It was not the financial success
Speaker 1: that he hoped it would be, but he and Rosina
Speaker 1: got married in Piccadilly on August twenty ninth of that year.
Speaker 1: His mother did not come to the wedding, and afterward,
Speaker 1: as she'd threatened to do, she cut off his allowance,
Speaker 1: leaving him only with his inheritance from his father and
Speaker 1: what he could earn on his own. She also refused
Speaker 1: to see him, and she returned all of his letters
Speaker 1: unopened for more than a year. In one of his
Speaker 1: many letters, Edward had told Rosina that because of this
Speaker 1: whole situation with his mother and his reduced income, they
Speaker 1: might have to live abroad in total isolation. Instead, they
Speaker 1: moved to a secluded house in Oxfordshire, where Edward kept
Speaker 1: trying to be a successful writer with Rosina's on ongoing help.
Speaker 1: We will talk about how their marriage evolved from this
Speaker 1: after we pause for another sponsor break.
Speaker 2: Before they got married, it seems like Edward and Rosina
Speaker 2: had talked a whole lot about what their lives might
Speaker 2: be like if they got married without his mother's approval.
Speaker 2: But even so, it just doesn't seem like they were
Speaker 2: fully prepared for that reality when it finally arrived. Edward
Speaker 2: continued to write Rosina really gushing letters when they were apart,
Speaker 2: but he also worked himself just to exhaustion trying to
Speaker 2: earn money as a writer, and he expected Rosina's continual
Speaker 2: help with that writing. He still had an eye on
Speaker 2: a seat in Parliament, and by eighteen twenty eight he
Speaker 2: started hinting to Rosina that it might be possible that
Speaker 2: he could claim the Doyle baronetcy threw his marriage to her.
Speaker 2: By that point, Rosina was pregnant, and her first allegation
Speaker 2: of Edward's physical abuse was during that pregnancy. She said
Speaker 2: she had been helping him.
Speaker 1: In their library, but she got tired and she had
Speaker 1: to lie down on the couch. When he asked her
Speaker 1: to go up a ladder to get him another book,
Speaker 1: she told him that she was too tired to do it,
Speaker 1: and at that point he kicked her. Edward's novel Pelham
Speaker 1: or the Adventures of a Gentleman was published in May
Speaker 1: of eighteen twenty eight, and it became a huge bestseller.
Speaker 1: Their daughter, Emily Elizabeth was born the following month, on
Speaker 1: June twenty seventh. Soon after this, Edward decided that Emily
Speaker 1: should be sent to a wet nurse because if she
Speaker 1: stayed at home, she would take up too much of
Speaker 1: Rosina's time when he needed her help with his writing.
Speaker 1: By mid July, Rosina was having eye trouble, which a
Speaker 1: doctor attributed to her constant weeping at being separated from
Speaker 1: her daughter. The doctor ordered her to spend three months
Speaker 1: recovering at the seaside town of Weymouth. Edward claimed that Rosina.
Speaker 2: Really wasn't affected by this, and that she had always
Speaker 2: been more fond of their dogs.
Speaker 1: With the money that he earned from his novel, Edward
Speaker 1: bought a house on Hertford Street in the Mayfair district
Speaker 1: of London, and the family moved there. He started making
Speaker 1: more political connections, and he started repairing his relationship with
Speaker 1: his mother, which added another layer of strain to his marriage,
Speaker 1: because Elizabeth could be very domineering and as we have established,
Speaker 1: she did not approve of Rosina at all.
Speaker 2: In the spring of eighteen thirty one, Edward was elected
Speaker 2: MP for Saint Ives. He met the property ownership requirement
Speaker 2: through the estate in Ireland that had belonged to Rosina's father.
Speaker 2: Because the way marriage worked under British law, women's property
Speaker 2: belonged to their husband. On November eighth of that year,
Speaker 2: their son, Edward Roberts known as Robert, was born. In
Speaker 2: eighteen thirty two, the Great Reform Act was passed in
Speaker 2: the UK which reformed the parliamentary system and changed the
Speaker 2: requirements to become an MP. This law changed the parliamentary map,
Speaker 2: getting rid of so called rotten boroughs that had two
Speaker 2: members of Parliament but almost no population to represent. It
Speaker 2: also reduced the number of MPs in smaller districts, including
Speaker 2: Saint Ives, which dropped from two MPs to one. This
Speaker 2: law also loosened up the property ownership requirements for becoming
Speaker 2: an MP, which allowed Edward to sell Rosina's property in Ireland,
Speaker 2: which he did for a little more than thirty seven
Speaker 2: hundred pounds. Rosina had no say at all in this decision,
Speaker 2: again because of those same laws about how marriage worked.
Speaker 2: After this reform bill passed, Edward was elected MP for Lincoln,
Speaker 2: and that was a seat that he held until eighteen
Speaker 2: forty one. In the fall of eighteen thirty three, Edward
Speaker 2: and Rosina took a trip to Naples, arriving there that November.
Speaker 2: Edward is described as exhausted at this point from years
Speaker 2: of writing incessantly to try to maintain their income and lifestyle,
Speaker 2: but he also wrote. While they were there, he finished
Speaker 2: most of his novel The Last Days of Pompeii, which
Speaker 2: would be published in eighteen thirty four and become his
Speaker 2: most successful book. Edward had been having extramarital affairs which
Speaker 2: Rosina knew about, and this included being involved with a
Speaker 2: married woman on this trip, and he also again became
Speaker 2: violent with Rosina while they were in Naples. Rosina's lady's maid,
Speaker 2: Rosetta Byrne, gave a sworn statement about what had happened
Speaker 2: later on, and here is what she wrote. Quote, Mister
Speaker 2: Edward Lytton Bulwer did her ladyship not only as to
Speaker 2: cruel neglect and infidelity, but also as to acts of
Speaker 2: brutal personal violence, amongst others. On one occasion, when traveling
Speaker 2: in Italy in eighteen thirty three, one night at the
Speaker 2: Lake of Bolsano, he so nashed the things about and
Speaker 2: at her ladyship that even Luigi the courier avowed he
Speaker 2: would not continue the journey with him again at Naples,
Speaker 2: after having, in one of his brutal rages, kicked and
Speaker 2: banged her ladyship against the stone floor at the Hotel
Speaker 2: Vittoria till she was black and blue and had to
Speaker 2: keep her bed. A few days after because people began
Speaker 2: to talk of this at Naples, he made her poor
Speaker 2: lady get up and dress herself to go to a
Speaker 2: great dinner at Lord Hertford's. Edward and Rosina returned to
Speaker 2: England in early eighteen thirty four, and there was another
Speaker 2: major violent incident that July. Rosina's lady's maid described this
Speaker 2: in the same sworn testament quote. After we got back
Speaker 2: to London, and his temper continued awful towards her ladyship
Speaker 2: for having asked him for money to pay the house
Speaker 2: bills left unpaid when they were abroad. So one day
Speaker 2: in July eighteen thirty four, at dinner at their house
Speaker 2: thirty six Hertford Street, Mayfair, London, he seized a carving
Speaker 2: knife and rushed at his wife when she cried out,
Speaker 2: for God's sake, Edward, take care what you are about.
Speaker 2: Then he dropped the knife and sprang on her like
Speaker 2: a tiger made his teeth meet in her left cheek
Speaker 2: until her screams brought the men servants back into the
Speaker 2: dining room. In Rosina's account, this started when she told
Speaker 2: her husband that she was going to a christening and
Speaker 2: he asked who she was going with. Rosina told him,
Speaker 2: and he reportedly said, my mother calls her that ugly
Speaker 2: old woman, like over and over again. And when Rosina
Speaker 2: just didn't acknowledge him, Edward asked if she had heard him.
Speaker 2: She said that she had, and when Edward asked why
Speaker 2: she hadn't answered him, she said she didn't think it
Speaker 2: required an answer, and that was when he had come
Speaker 2: at her with a knife. Shortly after this incident, Edward
Speaker 2: wrote Rosina a letter that's said, in part quote, I
Speaker 2: am now convinced of what I have long believed. I
Speaker 2: am only fit to live alone. God and nature afflicted
Speaker 2: me with unsocial habits, weak nerves, and violent passions. Everything
Speaker 2: in my life tended to feed these infirmities until they
Speaker 2: have become a confirmed and incurable disease, which nothing but
Speaker 2: a gentle pity, a forbearing soothing, watchful compassion as of
Speaker 2: a nurse over a madman can render bearable to me
Speaker 2: or others. They decided to separate, and Edward said that
Speaker 2: he would provide Rosina with six hundred pounds a year,
Speaker 2: paid out quarterly. He advised her to sell the house
Speaker 2: because she wouldn't be able to afford it on that amount,
Speaker 2: and he said that where she and the children lived
Speaker 2: and how were up to her, although he might decide
Speaker 2: to have an influence on their son's education when he
Speaker 2: got a little older. At this point, their daughter was
Speaker 2: six and their son was three. This was an informal separation,
Speaker 2: and over the next few years Rosina and Edward made
Speaker 2: some attempts to reconcile. The final straw that led them
Speaker 2: to legally separate seems to have happened in eighteen thirty six.
Speaker 2: Edward had told Rosina that he was going to have
Speaker 2: dinner with her, and then at the last minute, a
Speaker 2: servant brought word to her that he was ill. Rosina
Speaker 2: went to his rooms to see if he was okay
Speaker 2: and to take care of him if necessary, and she
Speaker 2: found him with a woman named Laura Deacon. Edward very
Speaker 2: indignantly claimed that Rosina had jumped to conclusions and attacked
Speaker 2: him after simply seeing that there were two teacups on
Speaker 2: the table, but this relationship with Laura Deacon was ongoing,
Speaker 2: and the two of them ultimately had three children together.
Speaker 2: The only way to obtain a divorce in the UK
Speaker 2: at this point was through an act of Parliament. A
Speaker 2: man could initiate ate a divorce bill on the grounds
Speaker 2: of adultery, and a woman could do so on the
Speaker 2: grounds of adultery and also cruelty. Only very wealthy people
Speaker 2: could afford to do this, really wealthier than Edward and Rosina, probably,
Speaker 2: but beyond that, Edward had no proof that Rosina had
Speaker 2: ever been unfaithful, although there had been some rumors that
Speaker 2: she had flirted with a prince while they were in Naples.
Speaker 2: Rosina might have been able to prove Edward's infidelity, but
Speaker 2: she would also have to prove that he was cruel
Speaker 2: That would have been a lot harder. That sworn statement
Speaker 2: from her maid is something that was written much later on,
Speaker 2: and even if she had had something like that to
Speaker 2: use as evidence, Edward would have gone to great links
Speaker 2: to defend himself from allegations of cruelty. That was just
Speaker 2: not something that he would have been willing to admit to.
Speaker 1: So they legally separated on April nineteenth, eighteen thirty six.
Speaker 1: Their deed of separation said, in part quote, whereas unhappy
Speaker 1: differences have arisen and still subsist between this said Edward
Speaker 1: George Earl Lytton Bulwer and Rosina and his wife, by
Speaker 1: reason whereof they have agreed to live separate and apart
Speaker 1: from each other for the future. And whereas the said
Speaker 1: Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer has proposed to allow unto
Speaker 1: or intrust for the said Rosina and Bulward during the
Speaker 1: said separation the yearly sum of four hundred pounds as
Speaker 1: a provision for her maintenance and support.
Speaker 2: The deed of separation also specified that Rosina would get
Speaker 2: an additional fifty pounds per year for each of her
Speaker 2: children as long as they lived with her, and it
Speaker 2: established two trustees for her, Sir Francis Hastings Doyle and
Speaker 2: the Reverend Sir Thomas Gary Cullum.
Speaker 1: On June fourteenth, eighteen thirty six, Rosina and her children
Speaker 1: moved out of Edward's home. She and Edward were both
Speaker 1: thirty three, and the children were seven and four. Since
Speaker 1: Edward and Rosina were still legally married, she still had
Speaker 1: no legal or economic rights apart from him, and was
Speaker 1: totally dependent on his support. Unlike her mother, she didn't
Speaker 1: have a father figure in a high ranking government position
Speaker 1: that she could move in with along with her children.
Speaker 2: Sir John Doyle, who had sheltered them when Rosina was
Speaker 2: a child, had died two years before this. This was
Speaker 2: not a case in which Rosina and Edward happily went
Speaker 2: their own way after being separated, and the words of
Speaker 2: her maid's sworn statement quote, he has ever since hunted
Speaker 2: her through the world with spies and bad women, and
Speaker 2: does not allow her enough to live upon for a
Speaker 2: lady in her station.
Speaker 1: After their separation, Rosina wrote a lot both to make
Speaker 1: up for a lack of income and to make sure
Speaker 1: that the world knew what she thought of her husband.
Speaker 1: And we're going to get into all of that next time.
Speaker 1: Do you have some listener mail to take us out
Speaker 1: of this domestic horror?
Speaker 2: I do have some listener mail. Before listener mail, we
Speaker 2: can mention once again that we are taking a trip
Speaker 2: to Morocco this November. I don't think we have mentioned
Speaker 2: that on the show in a bit. The last time
Speaker 2: I checked, we were sold out of individual single rooms
Speaker 2: and Defined Destinations was getting in touch with people just
Speaker 2: to see if there was anybody who might be okay
Speaker 2: sharing a room with somebody. There are still spots available
Speaker 2: for people traveling together as a pair, whether that's friends
Speaker 2: or a couple or whatever. So the best way to
Speaker 2: get to that is to go to Defined Destinations dot
Speaker 2: com and click on tours and it's the one called
Speaker 2: a Taste of Morocco. And yes, now I do have
Speaker 2: listener mail. This listener mail is from Gary, who wrote
Speaker 2: after our Triple Nichols episode. Gary wrote, Dear Tracy and Holly,
Speaker 2: I know I've been writing a lot lately, but I've
Speaker 2: been listening to your podcast a lot lately, and I
Speaker 2: have thoughts. As a white male boomer and a lifelong
Speaker 2: resident of Oregon, I didn't expect the Triple Nichols episode
Speaker 2: to hit so close to home, but it did in
Speaker 2: several ways. First, my ears perked up at the mention
Speaker 2: of Fort Benning. My mom's first husband attended officer Training
Speaker 2: school at Fort Benning when my mom was about twenty
Speaker 2: one years old. She took a train across the country
Speaker 2: to join him there. In later years, she told me
Speaker 2: that that train ride through the South and her time
Speaker 2: in Georgia were very upsetting to her because of the
Speaker 2: widespread poverty and the treatment of black people. Her husband
Speaker 2: was killed in a non combat vehicle crash somewhere in
Speaker 2: Europe shortly after V Day. When I was going through
Speaker 2: her things after she passed away in two thousand, I
Speaker 2: found materials from his time at Fort Benning, including a
Speaker 2: booklet listing all of his fellow graduates, among whom was
Speaker 2: a William Gates Senior, the father of Microsoft's Bill Gates.
Speaker 2: Just a fun fact. Then you got to the part
Speaker 2: about the Mitchell Party tragedy in Bly and the connection
Speaker 2: to the creation of smoke jumpers, including the Triple Nichols
Speaker 2: participation in them. My dad's family has lived in that
Speaker 2: area since the late nineteenth century, and I too, lived
Speaker 2: in nearby Lakeview for several years and have visited the monument.
Speaker 2: One of my older brother's best friends earned money for
Speaker 2: college as a smoke jumper based out of Cave Junction
Speaker 2: near where we grew up in Grant's Pass. But I
Speaker 2: really wasn't aware of the five point fifty five or
Speaker 2: their connection to the balloon bomb case or the smoke jumpers.
Speaker 2: And I'm always really happy when I learned new historical facts,
Speaker 2: especially about things and events that have touched my life.
Speaker 2: So thanks again for a really interesting episode. I'm attaching
Speaker 2: another photo of Judo, the Red Standard poodle, this time
Speaker 2: on a little hike with us. She's posing on a
Speaker 2: trail surrounded by blooming larkspur. She just turned ten years
Speaker 2: old earlier this month, but she's still a very active
Speaker 2: girl and loves walking in the forest with us. She
Speaker 2: recently pulled a muscle chasing a deer or squirrel, so
Speaker 2: we're having to keep her quiet, which is quite a
Speaker 2: challenge while at heels. Thanks again for your good work, Gary.
Speaker 2: I like how the options of chasing include a deer
Speaker 2: and a squirrel, two dissimilar animals. Oh my goodness, dissimilar
Speaker 2: but in similar places, similar places, similar fleeing from dogs,
Speaker 2: I would imagine. Yeah, what a cute poodle. She's precious,
Speaker 2: very cute, with a brown just brown like brown fur,
Speaker 2: and a very This face looks very pensive to me.
Speaker 2: It is sort of like she's thinking, is it okay
Speaker 2: for me to go on ahead of you? Do you
Speaker 2: want me to wait? Can I go?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure?
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for this email. Gary, you probably
Speaker 2: have heard the balloons the Japanese are the Balloons of
Speaker 2: World War two episode that we talked more about the
Speaker 2: tragedy and fly and the Japanese balloon bombs. We've gotten
Speaker 2: a couple of emails that kind of referenced to having
Speaker 2: never heard of that before. So in case folks have
Speaker 2: missed it, there is an episode in our previous episodes
Speaker 2: called the Balloons of World War Two that talks more
Speaker 2: about that. So, thank you so much, Gary. If you
Speaker 2: would like to send us a note about this or
Speaker 2: any other podcast or a history podcast at iHeartRadio dot com,
Speaker 2: and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio
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Speaker 2: Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
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