Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: I admire and look up to heroes, but indolent men
Speaker 2: make the best lovers, wrote Harriet Wilson in her memoirs.
Speaker 2: In eighteen twenty five, Harriet, a British courtesan, wrote and
Speaker 2: published a series of stories in a British broadsheet paper
Speaker 2: titled The Memoirs of Harriet Wilson. She's one of the
Speaker 2: most famous courtesans of the Regency era, not necessarily because
Speaker 2: of her affairs, but because she named names. She exposed
Speaker 2: in her memoirs, the names of royal, aristocratic and political men,
Speaker 2: whom she then blackmailed to keep their names out of
Speaker 2: those memoirs. Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, was famously
Speaker 2: one of those influential names. Let's talk about who Arthur was,
Speaker 2: why Harriet would want to blackmail him, and why among
Speaker 2: all her victims, we chose him to have on the
Speaker 2: show Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarqui.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. Arthur Wellesley was a hero. Literally,
Speaker 1: he had wanted to follow his dreams of becoming a musician,
Speaker 1: but his mother would not hear of it, and instead
Speaker 1: he joined a Highland regiment. He then fought at Flanders,
Speaker 1: directed the British campaign in India, fought in campaigns in
Speaker 1: both Portugal and France, and commanded the British Army in
Speaker 1: the Peninsular War. He went on to become a military
Speaker 1: general who, among many impressive acts, was a national hero
Speaker 1: for his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. His military
Speaker 1: battle plans are still studied today. He was that good.
Speaker 1: He famously is quoted saying the only thing I am
Speaker 1: afraid of is fear. We'll see about that. Arthur has
Speaker 1: also appeared on Criminalia a few times in the past,
Speaker 1: so if you've been with us for a while, you
Speaker 1: may remember we talked about the time his portrait, which
Speaker 1: is Goya's painting The Duke, became a target of theft
Speaker 1: from the National Gallery in London, and we also told
Speaker 1: the story of when he was famously stalked by Lady
Speaker 1: Georgiana Faine, English heiress and daughter of John Fain, tenth
Speaker 1: Earl of Westmoreland. And we can't skip this fact either.
Speaker 1: He is also the person that Wellington boots are named
Speaker 1: for after he asked his shoemaker, a George Hoby of
Speaker 1: Saint James's Street in London, to make him a boot
Speaker 1: that would be easier to wear with the newly fashionable
Speaker 1: tighter fitting trousers. The Wellington Arch in London's Hyde Park. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is named after him.
Speaker 2: Too, but it takes two to tango, so let's talk
Speaker 2: about Harriet. Harriet Wilson was born Harriet de Bouchet on
Speaker 2: February twenty second, seventeen eighty six in London. She was
Speaker 2: one of fifteen children born to Swiss clockmaker John and
Speaker 2: his English wife Amelia. John changed the family's surname to
Speaker 2: Wilson in eighteen oh one. Harriet did not grow up
Speaker 2: dreaming of becoming a courtisan. She first tried on a
Speaker 2: career as a governess, then a boarding school music teacher.
Speaker 2: She found both, she would later write, insufferable and boring.
Speaker 2: She wanted, as she wrote in her memoirs, to live
Speaker 2: quote as free as air, from any restraint but that
Speaker 2: of my conscience, and explained that her sister Amy led her,
Speaker 2: as well as her other sisters, Fanny and Sophie, into
Speaker 2: the world of the courtisan society. Labeled her a demirep,
Speaker 2: which was a woman of dubious reputation, but the courtesan
Speaker 2: was a woman in control of her life and her finances,
Speaker 2: which most married women at the time were not. So
Speaker 2: Esa heads up on this one as we get into
Speaker 2: her story. Her life as a courtieson began when she
Speaker 2: was a teenage girl.
Speaker 1: So a courtisan, just so we all know, was basically
Speaker 1: an upper class woman who had intimate relationships with wealthy
Speaker 1: or important people in exchange for money. She also provided
Speaker 1: companionship and good conversation. Sometimes this was a long term
Speaker 1: financial arrangement, but not always. It could be weeks or
Speaker 1: it could be years, and courtisans had a certain cachet.
Speaker 1: They were witty and intelligent. With Jois de Vive, Harriet
Speaker 1: was an educated woman. She read French, and she was
Speaker 1: interested in Roman history, and she took interest in current politics.
Speaker 1: She was described as quote far from beautiful, but a smart,
Speaker 1: saucy girl with good eyes and dark hair and the
Speaker 1: manners of a wild schoolboy.
Speaker 2: It's time for us to take a break forward from
Speaker 2: our sponsors. But when we're back, we'll talk about Harriet
Speaker 2: Wilson's career as a courtesan. And the influential people who
Speaker 2: got caught in her web of blackmail.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about some of the
Speaker 1: affairs of Harriet Wilson.
Speaker 2: Harriet began her memoirs talking about her first client, William,
Speaker 2: Earl of Craven. William we found was a cousin of
Speaker 2: the author Jane Austen, which is just a little side
Speaker 2: note for any j Knights or austin Knites out there.
Speaker 2: Of him, she said, quote, I shall not say how
Speaker 2: and why I became, at the age of fifteen the
Speaker 2: mistress of the Earl of Craven, whether it was love,
Speaker 2: or the depravity of my own heart, or the winning
Speaker 2: arts of the noble lord which induced me to leave
Speaker 2: my paternal roof and place myself under his protection. Her
Speaker 2: memoirs were hyped as a tell all, and she did
Speaker 2: tell some. She described not only the boredom she felt
Speaker 2: as the years passed, but also personal details, such as quote,
Speaker 2: all men do not wear those ugly cotton nightcaps. Else
Speaker 2: all women's illusions had been destroyed in the first night
Speaker 2: of marriage. Later in her story, she writes of a
Speaker 2: royal quote, I wonder, thought, I what sort of a nightcap?
Speaker 2: The Prince of Wales wears she had a great deal
Speaker 2: to say, and just as many of us can't get
Speaker 2: enough celebrity gossip today, people then also wanted to hear
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: Years later, the Earl of Craven ended the affair, accusing
Speaker 1: her of having a dalliance with Frederick Lamb, third Viscount Melbourne.
Speaker 1: She denied it to William, but she and Lamb did
Speaker 1: have an affair. After her relationship with Lamb ended, she
Speaker 1: began an affair with Colin Campbell, third Duke of Argyle,
Speaker 1: that ended when he and her sister Amy met and
Speaker 1: they became lovers. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, was an
Speaker 1: on again, off again entanglement. The memoir really reads like
Speaker 1: a who's who of influential names. Harriet claimed the Marquess
Speaker 1: of Worcester wanted to marry her, although his father, the
Speaker 1: Duke of Beaufort, put an end to that. Some versions
Speaker 1: of that affair suggest she actually blackmailed the Duke into
Speaker 1: keeping his son's proposal quiet. It was one thing to
Speaker 1: carry on with a cortison, but marriage that was a
Speaker 1: no no. She kept a company of Henry Brahm, first
Speaker 1: Baron Brahm and Vox, as well as John Wilson Croker,
Speaker 1: politician and essayist. She also had flirtations with the Prince Regent,
Speaker 1: who reigned first as Regent due to his father's illness
Speaker 1: from eighteen eleven to eighteen twenty and then as King
Speaker 1: George the Fourth from eighteen twenty to eighteen forty. Other
Speaker 1: influential names included Henry John Temple, Lord Palmerston, Lord Frederick Bentick,
Speaker 1: Augustus Fitzgerald, third Duke Leinster, Francis Seymour Conway, Third Marquess
Speaker 1: of Hertford, the Honorable Frederick poodle Bing, and Lord John Ponsonby,
Speaker 1: whom she claimed was her one true love. Of him
Speaker 1: she recalled quote, even the knocker of his door escaped,
Speaker 1: not my veneration.
Speaker 2: Many of the men who had in the past promised
Speaker 2: her a pension as part of their deal seemed to
Speaker 2: have forgotten about her after they ended the affair, and
Speaker 2: that's where the idea of the tell all sparked. Finding
Speaker 2: herself about to turn forty years old with dwindling finances,
Speaker 2: Harriet decided to write her memoirs, which actually was a
Speaker 2: kiss and Tell that she used to threaten to expose
Speaker 2: her lovers unless they paid to keep their names out
Speaker 2: of her work. It was split into multiple volumes, each
Speaker 2: featuring a different client or clients. In cahoots with publisher
Speaker 2: John Joseph Stockdale, a draft of the manuscript for the
Speaker 2: Memoirs of Harriet Wilson was intentionally circulated to several of
Speaker 2: the important men mentioned in the book, along with a
Speaker 2: note that for a sizeable payment, passages could be omitted
Speaker 2: or revised, and quotes from love letters could be removed
Speaker 2: Before it went public. Some accounts report that upwards of
Speaker 2: two hundred letters were sent to her former clients demanding
Speaker 2: an annual annuity of twenty pounds or one lump sum
Speaker 2: of two hundred pounds to ensure their annonymity. Though nefarious,
Speaker 2: it was a pretty good plan. If she didn't get
Speaker 2: the money she was blackmailing for, she would still make
Speaker 2: money on the book sales anyway.
Speaker 1: Stockdale, her publisher, was a sketchy guy. He was an
Speaker 1: English publisher and editor with a reputation as a pornographer
Speaker 1: and as a publisher of questionable materials. The fact that
Speaker 1: he was involved in blackmail is pretty unsurprising. He did, however,
Speaker 1: publish writing that was less sensationalistic, sometimes, such as Percy
Speaker 1: Bishelley's Gothic horror novel titled Saint Irvine or The Rosicrucian
Speaker 1: of Romance. Under the pseudonym of Thomas Little. He also
Speaker 1: published an edition of John Robertson's then radical Treatise on
Speaker 1: the Pathology of the Reproductive System. That was a work
Speaker 1: titled on Diseases of the Generative System.
Speaker 2: So that said, we're going to take a break for
Speaker 2: word from our sponsors. When we're all back together, we'll
Speaker 2: talk about how successful or unsuccessful Harriet's blacklackmail campaign fared.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia and now the blackmail. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about Arthur Wellesley's reaction to Harriet's blackmail attempt.
Speaker 2: So back to the memoir. In December of eighteen twenty four,
Speaker 2: Arthur Wellesley received correspondence from John Joseph Stockdale on behalf
Speaker 2: of Harriet, stating, quote, my Lord Duke, in Harriet Wilson's
Speaker 2: memoirs which I am about to publish, are various anecdotes
Speaker 2: of your grace which it would be most desirable to withhold.
Speaker 2: At least such is my opinion. I have stopped the
Speaker 2: press for the moment, but as the publication will take
Speaker 2: place next week, little delay can necessarily take place. This
Speaker 2: outraged Arthur, leading him to roar the now famous quote,
Speaker 2: publish and be damned. He was the only person mixed
Speaker 2: up in Harriet's blackmail circle who stood up for himself
Speaker 2: so solidly that we still know about it two hundred
Speaker 2: years later.
Speaker 1: So obviously, Arthur Wellesley was not the kind of man
Speaker 1: who was easily intimidated, not on the battlefield and not
Speaker 1: off of it. He was more than willing to call
Speaker 1: out any person who gave him any offense or grievance.
Speaker 1: He was literally a guy who would face his enemies
Speaker 1: with pistols at dawn. He did, and he lived to
Speaker 1: tell about it. After his military achievements, he entered politics,
Speaker 1: eventually rising to the office of Prime Minister in eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty eight. He was married, yet remained an undeniable womanizer.
Speaker 1: Twenty years had passed since he and Harriet had their affair.
Speaker 2: We learn of him from her that he was quote
Speaker 2: a faithful lover whose love survived six winters. She described
Speaker 2: him as quote my own Wellington, who sided over me,
Speaker 2: talked of my wonderful beauty, ran after me. She called
Speaker 2: him quote my constant visitor and a modern bluebeard. She
Speaker 2: also described him as quote most unentertaining and claimed that
Speaker 2: quote in the evenings, when he wore his broad red ribbon,
Speaker 2: he looked very much like a rat catcher. She compared
Speaker 2: his pillow talk to quote sitting up with a corpse.
Speaker 2: It wasn't all racy material.
Speaker 1: Of course, Arthur wasn't the only one that Harriet tried
Speaker 1: to blackmail, and others were more forthcoming. We mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: that she included the Prince Regent in her tell all,
Speaker 1: but there wasn't much to tell. Really. It was more
Speaker 1: about associating with his name. Harriet wrote about the letters
Speaker 1: that they had exchanged and how he didn't impress her.
Speaker 1: In his correspondence, she wrote to him, quote, I am
Speaker 1: told that I am very beautiful, So perhaps you would
Speaker 1: like to see me if you believe you could make
Speaker 1: me in love with you write to me. In reply,
Speaker 1: George suggested they meet in London, but as she was
Speaker 1: in Brighton, she replied, quote, Sir, to travel fifty two
Speaker 1: miles this bad weather merely to see a man, would
Speaker 1: you must admit be madness in a girl like myself?
Speaker 1: Surrounded by humble admirers. If you can do anything better
Speaker 1: in the way of pleasing a lady than ordinary men,
Speaker 1: write directly, if not adieu monsieur le Prince. She admitted,
Speaker 1: though that they never actually had an affair, so threatening
Speaker 1: to share his correspondence she hoped was going to be
Speaker 1: enough to get him to pay her for her silence.
Speaker 2: Her blackmail scheme pay to be deleted from her Kiss
Speaker 2: and Tel has since frustrated biographers of Wilson, as she
Speaker 2: clearly held her end of the deal and altered her
Speaker 2: writing for those who gave her money. Most of her
Speaker 2: former lovers, including the Prince Regent, who we know wasn't
Speaker 2: actually in that category, technically paid to keep their names
Speaker 2: out of this whole business.
Speaker 1: Stockdale, despite Arthur's outcry, did publish, And as for the Duke,
Speaker 1: his social and public reputation maybe took a small hit,
Speaker 1: but nothing really happened. He didn't have to resign, he
Speaker 1: didn't have to apologize. He kept his status as the
Speaker 1: nation's hero and his popularity. Ebbden waned with his political career,
Speaker 1: not from anything Harriet had to say about him.
Speaker 2: The book became a bestseller, even though much of it
Speaker 2: was known to be completely fictional, and, as we've been
Speaker 2: talking about, also heavily redacted. The demand was so great
Speaker 2: that a barrier had to be erected in front of
Speaker 2: Stockdale's shop the day it was made available. But despite
Speaker 2: its subject matter, Harriet's allegedly scandalous book was actually, by
Speaker 2: many accounts, pretty dull. The scandal of the book was
Speaker 2: the names that appeared in it, not anything especially graphic
Speaker 2: or salacious.
Speaker 1: Minus the two hundred pound blackmail payments, It's believed that
Speaker 1: Harriet's memoirs made her about ten thousand pounds. In eighteen thirty,
Speaker 1: she tried another round of blackmail letters to her former clients,
Speaker 1: threatening another publication. Mostly this just caused anger, and most
Speaker 1: of the men dismissed her. In the end, with a
Speaker 1: comfortable nest egg from her memoir sales and her successful blackmails,
Speaker 1: Harriet retired from her work.
Speaker 2: So what are we drinking with Harriet or Arthur?
Speaker 1: This is a drink that I think Harriet would have enjoyed,
Speaker 1: and I'm calling it the chatty Cortison. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of cocktails called a courtisan, so I couldn't do that.
Speaker 2: That's appropriate for her.
Speaker 1: She was chatting. She wanted to talk a lot about
Speaker 1: her life, some of it fake and some of it
Speaker 1: real and.
Speaker 2: Redacted, heavily redacted life.
Speaker 1: So this one is a heavy hitter. I just warn
Speaker 1: you up front there is a lot of alcohol in it.
Speaker 1: So we'll start with the non alcoholic components, a half
Speaker 1: ounce of lemon juice and an ounce of white grape juice.
Speaker 1: To that, you are going to add an ounce of gin,
Speaker 1: a half ounce of Creme de Vilette, and a half
Speaker 1: ounce of Saint Germain, and you are going to shake
Speaker 1: these together with ice till it's very cold, and you're
Speaker 1: going to pour them into a chilled coop, and then
Speaker 1: you are going to top it with chilled prosecco for
Speaker 1: a little bubble, A little bubble, a little bubble. This
Speaker 1: is one of those drinks that is almost stupidly delicious.
Speaker 1: It's super easy to sip, even though has a lot
Speaker 1: of alcohol in it. Obviously, drink responsibly. But I just
Speaker 1: picture her having these made as she sits on her couch,
Speaker 1: chuckling to herself about all of the men she feels.
Speaker 1: She holds in her hand with her information, the floral
Speaker 1: notes from the creme to violette and the elderflower liquor
Speaker 1: are not super strong. It's like they all kind of
Speaker 1: balance and co under each other, and it's like having
Speaker 1: a almost like a champagne cocktail, but it's a little
Speaker 1: more than your French seventy five because we have other
Speaker 1: flavors in the mix.
Speaker 2: I actually think this is The ingredients to this are
Speaker 2: fantastically Harriet.
Speaker 1: They just felt very right to yeah for her. If
Speaker 1: you want to make the mocktail version of this, that
Speaker 1: is actually pretty easy. We're going to do the subout.
Speaker 1: We've gotten pretty used to of using an ounce of
Speaker 1: flat tonic water in lieu of gin. Instead of your
Speaker 1: creme to violette, you're gonna use violet syrup, and instead
Speaker 1: of your elderflower liqueur, you'll use an elderflower syrup. Now,
Speaker 1: one thing I would do here is I would up
Speaker 1: the lemon juice just a little bit, because at that
Speaker 1: point you're adding a lot more syrup to get the flavors.
Speaker 1: So I would go to like three quarters of an ounce,
Speaker 1: maybe even more. If you want a little more tart,
Speaker 1: then you'll keep your ounce of white grape juice, and
Speaker 1: you will use like a low sugar ginger ale instead
Speaker 1: of prosecco.
Speaker 2: Sounds like that. The mocktail is equally days day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is very yummy. It's one of those mocktails
Speaker 1: that I found myself going. If I've made everything but
Speaker 1: the bubble part and I just kept us in a picture,
Speaker 1: I can drink off of this all day while I'm working,
Speaker 1: and just top it off with the ginger ale and
Speaker 1: I'll be in great chap. It's a super yummy one.
Speaker 1: I really liked this. The cocktail version is not very sweet.
Speaker 1: Even though it has sweet elements in it. Nothing is
Speaker 1: really to my palette, the domineering element of it, which
Speaker 1: is always nice right when it's like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: just its own, its own thing. That is the chatty Cortison.
Speaker 1: We have sure enjoyed chatting about her with you, and
Speaker 1: we hope that you have enjoyed it as well, and
Speaker 1: that you will join us again next week for another
Speaker 1: story of blackmail and another coercion concoction. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,