The Love of the Duchess of Devonshire, Part 2

written in my blood. At thirty four years of age, fearing her death, the Duchess of Devonshire wrote to her children overseas in the hopes that these words, written in what would be the only lasting piece of her living form, would be some comfort to them. Quote. One of my greatest pains in dying is not to see you again, she wrote to her elder daughter. I die, my dearest child,

with the most unfeigned repentance for my many errors. As her hands gripped desperately onto what she believed would be her last words to her children, it's difficult to say exactly which of her many errors Georgiana was referring to. On the surface, it seems obvious that she might be speaking of her thousands upon thousands of pounds and gambling debt, especially when she later advised in her letter to quote

learned to be exact about expense. But if you were there with Georgiana that day, if you were watching her fill the pages with her parting thoughts, it would have been impossible for you to ignore the significant swell of her belly protruding from her otherwise slight frame, a belly which alludes to one particular error, the one that had put her there in a stranger's home in the French countryside,

days away from giving birth. But is that right? Had it been an error to have followed her heart, to have fallen in love, to wish more than anything that she could keep this child that she was about to give birth to. Perhaps her only errors lied in the circumstances outside of her control, the decisions she was being forced to make in order to keep her three other

children with a mother in their lives. Days later, despite the difficult pregnancy, Georgiana would survive the birth of her daughter, though she would never be able to claim her as such. Barely hours after entering the world, the newborn infant Eliza Courtney, was ripped from her mother's arms to live with her

paternal grandparents in Northumberland into England. The birth may have spared Georgiana's life, but the unspeakable pain she felt watching her daughter be taken away would, along with the combined weight of the rest of her life's many errors, threatened to sink her into an even deeper oblivion than the death that she had so feared. I'm Dana Schwartz and

this is noble blood. Two years earlier, on a much happier morning in May, the deafening cry of a newborn child was celebrated with the wet smiles and warm embraces of a family brimming with equal parts joy and relief. At long last, the Duke and Duchess had finally been

blessed with their Devonshire air. The newborn Marquess of Hardington, or Heart, as he was affectionately called, was the product of nearly sixteen years of fertility struggles and marital turmoil that had at long last settled into an, if not healthy, at least semi functional arrangement. In the years since the Duke and Duchess's temporary separation, Georgiana's uncontrollable gambling continued to

escalate her debts. Only then, following the Duke's threat of separation and her best friend Bess's suspicious lack of support, did Georgiana become determined to change her ways, or short of that, she at least swore to stop withholding the details of her debt from her best friend Best That was what Georgiana had assumed had angered Best anyway, not that Bess had a desire to see Georgana gone so

that she herself could become the duchess. Best or Lady Elizabeth Foster, for those who need a quick refresher, was the half genuine, half social climbing best friend of Georgiana, who, after being invited to live with the couple in London,

later became Georgana's husband. The Duke's mistress. Without a doubt, Best stood to gain quite a bit had her friend no longer been the Duchess, But the drawbacks of driving Georgana from her own home while she was supposed to be her closest friend ultimately forced her to accept her lot in life as the Devonshire's token third wheel. Though, following the arrival of their long awaited air, Bess and

Georgiana's relationship became stronger than it had ever been. With the Devonshire's marital future secured, the physical responsibilities of Georgiana's marriage had been fulfilled, which meant that Best no longer had to share the Duke with his wife, and so when Georgiana began to express interest in a man other than her husband, Best certainly had no reason to object. The man in question was the young, passionate, up and

coming Wig politician Charles Gray. Where the Duke was distant and emotionally unavailable, Gray was bold and romantic, with an inherent flare for drama. The two had met through their joint work for the Whig Party, but it quickly became

clear that Gray's passion wasn't just limited to politics. From causing scenes at Devonshire House circle parties to quote unquote secret rendezvous in Bath, the pair couldn't have been less discreet if one of Georgiana's legendary Whigs had had a neon sign attached flashing the words where having an affair above her head As they paraded across London. The more London talked, the more Georgana's friend tried to persuade her

to be at least less conspicuous about her newfound love. Bess, who had initially supported the affair, feared the Duke's inevitable retaliation at seeing his wife plastered across the London tabloids. Even the playwright Richard Sheridan, who wrote The School for Scandal, the play from the beginning of last week's episode based loosely on the Duchess's life, wrote to her begging her

to see reason now. The very fact that the man who wrote an entire play scandalizing Georgiana's life was urging her to use discretion should have been enough of a red flag, But Georgiana was well past the point of listening to reason. Unlike the early years of her marriage, when she had bent over backwards in an attempt to get the Duke to simply look at her for the first time in her life, Georgiana was not just romantically loved, but chased as popular and universally loved as she was

by the Devonshire House circle. None of it compared to the singular romantic attention that she received from Charles Gray. His bold declarations of love appealed to the romantic in Georgiana, who had been forced to tamper down her expectations of happily ever afters early on in her marriage. Of course, just as Georgiana was settling into her whirlwind fairytale romance, the universe had already set planned into motion to bring

her back to reality. By the end of summer se she could no longer ignore the familiar changes her body began to take on, nor the inevitable repercussions that such changes were going to bring. After so many years of fertility issues and desperate prayers for a healthy child, against

all odds, that Duchess was pregnant once again. In the early months, Georgiana was able to keep the physical signs of her pregnancy relatively hidden under the guise of helping her sister, who had fallen ill and been sent to Cornwall to convalesce. Georgiana was able to carry her secret for six months before word of her condition began to spread.

Of course, rather than simply coming clean and telling her husband the truth, Similarly to how she handled her game billing debts, the Duchess chose to keep the truth from her husband until the day it would inevitably come knocking on their door. Only when the Duke finally received word that it was of the utmost importance to see his wife with his own eyes did he not knock on

her door so much as kick it down. The Duke took one look at Georgiana, more than six months pregnant at this point, and dragged her into the next room, locking the door behind them, not that the walls could do much to block out the volume of the Duke's rage or of Georgiana's responding cries. In the end, the Duke gave his wife an ultimatum. Either end her affair with Gray and put their forthcoming child up for adoption, or he would divorce her and refuse to let her

see their three children ever again. It was an impossible choice, but one that she made without pause. Even if the entirety of her decision hinged on the Duke keeping his word.

She could never live without her three children. By the time the Duke departed from Cornwall, it had been decided Georgiana would be sent abroad to France as soon as possible, presumably to come back once the child had been born and sent away, and so with nothing but the weight of her impending heartbreak and the future of her unborn child on her mind, Georgiana packed her bags and set forth to meet her uncertain fate. It's at this point I think it's important to remind you exactly what was

happening in France in the early seventeen nineties. If you were a long time listener, you may remember the very first Noble Blood episode was on none other than Marie Antoinette, the queen whose decapitated head became the symbol of the

French Revolution. Well coincidentally, she and Georgiana had grown to be quite good friends, both able to commiserate over their overbearing mothers and lackluster husbands, but considering the general French populace, agreed that they wanted to see Marie Antoinette's head in

a blood straw lined basket. Being her friend, or being associated with French nobility at all, was about the last thing you would want to do in seventeen nineties France, Which brings us to a residence on the outskirts of Montpellier, days before Georgiana was due to give birth to her fourth child. With the comforts of home and her family physicians across the English Channel. The precarious ground on which the French monarchy stood only added to the Duchess's paranoia

as to the likelihood of her impending death. In addition to the blood inked letters she wrote to her children, Georgiana penned a new will dated January and took out a life insurance policy on herself for about a thousand pounds. Comparatively, the thousand pounds was a pittance in the grand scheme of what she owed to her various creditors across Great Britain,

but the intention of her gesture was clear. She may have had no control over when or even if she would be able to return to see her children again, but she wanted to make sure they would be taken care of regardless of what happened to her. Perhaps Georgiana's only saving grace in her forced exile were the people that had chosen to accompany her, along with her mother and her sister, to the Duke and the rest of London Society's surprise, Bess had agreed to join Georgana's party abroad.

When he had initially made his ultimatum the Duke had expected Georgiana to agree to his terms and her affair and have the child abroad. He had not expected his mistress to voluntarily choose to abandon him, albeit temporarily, to go with his exiled wife to war torn France. After all, now that the Duke had proof of the Duchess's infidelity,

Bess's role in Devonshire House suddenly had new potential. Should he go back on his word and choose to divorce Georgiana, he'd technically be in his right to do so, meaning Bess would naturally be next in line to become Duchess. But what the Duke hadn't taken into account was that this wasn't the first time he had sent a woman in Devonshire House abroad to have their illegitimate child. Bess

knew how it felt. In fact, over the course of their nearly decade long affair, the Duke had sent Bess abroad to have not one but two of his illegitimate children, subsequently forcing her to hand each of them off to a foster family so she could come back to London

child free. But now that Georgiana was to be forced to endure the same fate, best saw an opportunity to bring her children back into her life, and if Georgiana and Bess had anything in common other than their relationship to the Duke, it was their determination to sure the

well being of their children. So when the rest of Georgiana's family moved on to Nice for the sake of Georgiana's sister's health, Bess and her six year old daughter, Caroline St. Jules stayed behind with Georgiana in Montpellier, and on February twenty, seventeen ninety two, with Bess at her side, Georgiana gave birth to her daughter, Elizabeth Courtney. In a poem by Georgiana dated just days after Eliza's birth, she wrote to her daughter, quote and should then generous world

upbraid thee for mine and for thy father's ill. A nameless mother offt shall asiste a hand unseen protect thee.

Still it's obvious the loss of her newborn daughter was devastating, but the words she left for Eliza in the poem suggests she hadn't given up hope as to the possibility of influencing her daughter's life from afar, and while there's no substantial evidence to prove it, I like to think that despite their somewhat tumultuous relationship, having Best there to support her, not just as her close friend, but as another woman who had been forced to give away her

child because of the Duke, was at least a small comfort to Georgiana, especially with Caroline Saint Jules at Bess's side, even though the child was technically the living proof of Bess's and her husband's infidelity. Seeing Bess and her daughter reunited after so many years apart likely gave Georgiana some semblance of hope in the bleak days following the loss

of her own daughter. But soon days turned into weeks, and apart from dealing with her considerable grief, Georgiana's days were spent doing one thing and one thing, only waiting to hear word from the Duke. By the time Georgana and Bess had caught up with the rest of their party in Niece, there was still no word. It became obvious that ultimatum or not, the Duke was not going

to let Georgiana return to England so easily. Finally, in April, the Duke wrote to Georgiana, making himself perfectly clear Beth could come home, but she Georgiana was to stay abroad until he deemed her worthy of returning. Just when she had begun to grow accustomed to the well of grief that had permanently taken resident in her chest, a new

wave of heartbreak threatened to overtake her entirely. As the repercussions of the Duke's message settled in quote, Oh, my dear child, Georgiana wrote in a letter to her eldest daughter, I can only assure you that your love and the hopes that you will not forget me, is the comfort of my life now that I am absent from you. When I am to return is now very uncertain. I hope it will be soon, as I do not feel

I have strength to bear so long in absence. In her desperation to see her children again, the Duchess pleaded with her husband to let her and Best visit, even for just a month in secret, but the Duke refused. Even Georgana's sister Harriet, noticed the despondent turn her sister had taken, writing in a letter to a mutual friend, quote he never writes to her, and seldom to Best. And the last letter was in so harsh a style

that I have little hopes of good. Even though the Duke had invited Best to return to Devonshire House in London, it didn't take her long to realize that his irritation didn't solely lie with his wife. Going back so far as when the Duke discovered Georgiana's pregnancy back in Cornwall, the Duke had been furious that Bess had kept such

a monumental secret from him for so long. Add to that the fact that she had chosen to accompany his wife to France and had taken back their illegitimate child with her to France, and Bess was suddenly vying for the title of most vexing woman in Devonshire House. Still, the Duke invited her back, but it was clear to even those without the intimate knowledge of what went on in the Devonshire Managatois that the Duke was doing so not out of his love for Best, but in an

effort to further isolate Georgiana. Ultimately, his efforts would be for not. Bess had solidified her place at Georgiana's side, and there would be nothing that could threaten to take her away. In the end, it would be two years before the Duke finally wrote to invite his duchess back

to London. As soon as they received word, Georgiana and Bess wasted no time packing their belongings and beginning the arduous task of returning home in the midst of the freshly overthrown French monarchy, and while watching English refugees attempt to clamber aboard the small yachts she and Bess had somehow charmed their way onto. Was no doubt traumatic the welcome Georgiana was waiting for at Devonshire House would prove

to be something else entirely. Quote. I have seen them, I have seen them, Georgiana wrote to her mother after being reunited with her three children at long last. Hartington is very pretty, she continued, but very cruel to me. He will not look at me or speak to me, though he kissed me a little at night. End quote. The differences in her children's demeanor were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the changes Georgiana walked into upon her return to London. Two years seemed to

have passed in the blink of an eye. Yet the truth remained that two years was vastly more significant in the eyes of her young children. Heart barely remembered his mother, and after further investigation, was discovered to be almost entirely deaf after an infection of his had been left neglected for too long without being treated. In addition to the fury that she felt on behalf of her children, Georgiana was greeted with yet another betrayal, Charles Gray was engaged

to be married. Even if she had no tension of rekindling her flame with Gray, the fact that she had learned the news through the London papers and not through Gray himself, was another bruise on Georgiana's already withering ego. London may have still considered her their darling, but the Duke's forced exile had taken its toll on the Duchess's

mental health. She was terrified to make any wrong moves and fear that the Duke would sent her away from her children again, which had the inverse reaction of making her somewhat of a recluse in the initial years after her return. This behavior only compounded after a series of recurring migraines, which escalated into severe swelling and ultimately lost

a vision in her right eye. The treatments done by the doctors to attempt to salvage her vision verged on torture, and along with residual chronic pain, Georgiana was left with considerable scarring across her face. Upon her return, newspapers had expected Georgiana to come back to the town with nude fervor, but the combined trauma of her time away and the physical repercussions of her illness paralyzed her into a life

now spent indoors. For months, she refused to see visitors, but after so much time spent in isolation, the Duchess finally began to slowly take her life back. The children were steadily improving now that she had returned, and though her illness had left her with substantial vision loss and scarring on the upper half of her face, the imperfections

had an oddly liberating effect on her life. In a letter she wrote two years after her illness, she wrote, quote, I have learned, however, to love my age and not be ashamed of it, and my illness perhaps was a benefit in making me relinquish at once the ridiculous trade of an old beauty end quote. After accepting her new appearance, Georgana slowly began making her way back out into the world.

She actively took part in her eldest daughter's coming out into society, but in the final years of her life, her most significant role would be in the political sphere. In her absence, the Whig Party had fallen well out of power, its main players scattered as they each attempted to push their own agendas to little avail. The Duchess would become instrumental in hosting gatherings that brought together and solidified alliances within the Whig Party for the first time

since their unforgettable loss in seventeen eighty four. Following the turn of the century, Georgiana's health would steadily begin to decline, but she was determined to bring the Whig Party back to its former glory. In the end, she would live long enough to see the Whigs finally come back into power in eighteen o six, only to succumb to a liver abscess a few weeks later. Georgiana passed away in the early morning hours of March eighteen o six, with

Bess and the Duke both at her bedside. Her sister wrote of her passing quote, I saw it all held her through all her struggles saw her expire, and since have again and again kissed her cold lips, and pressed her lifeless body to my heart, and yet I am alive and quote. For those closest to the Duchess, it seemed impossible that the world could possibly continue to spin

onwards after the loss of such a titanic presence. Even the Duke, whose emotional bandwidth had held previously little regard to the well being of his wife, lamented her passing. They may have had their differences, but for better or worse, Georgiana had been a constant presence in his life, one that he found himself longing for now that it was gone.

Of course, he still had best But in the wake of their return from France, the Duke and Bess's relationship never fully recovered from her quote betrayal of choosing Georgiana

over him. Initially, after her death, Bess and the Duke went their separate ways, the Duke taking his children to their Chiswick house, while Bess went to stay with Georgiana's sister, and perhaps Georgiana had worried that after her death the Duke would cast Bess out, because, whatever the reason, even after she was gone, Georgana made certain Best would be

taken care of. One of Georgiana's final actions was choosing Best to be the sole guardian of all of her papers and correspondence, and whether it was intentional or not, Bess's involvement in the goings on at Devonshire House solidified her place there, even after all of Georgiana's papers had been sorted. The Duke, after so many years attempting to distance himself from Bess after Georgiana's exile, now found himself

increasingly reliant on Bess in the wake of his wife's death. Eventually, in eighteen o nine, three years after Georgiana's passing, Bess and the Duke finally married, and Bess finally became the Duchess of Devonshire. And though Bess may have finally gotten the title, she had so long been envious of. The grief that she felt the loss of her best friend

was undoubtedly genuine. In a letter to her son written just a few months after Georgiana's death, quote, she is so present to me, and I am so constantly occupied by her that I feel as if she was absent on a journey. And I catch myself saying I'll tell her this end quote. Bess ended the letter to her son with a thought, no doubt shared by all of London as they grieved the loss of their duchess. Quote. Georgiana was the constant charm of my life. She doubled

every joy, lessened every grief. Her society had an attraction I never met with in any other being. Her love for me was really passing the love of woman. End quote That marks the end of our two part series on the tragedy life of Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire. But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit about the legacy of Georgiana's lover, Earl Gray.

Charles Gray, the young romantic wig politician who won the Duchess's heart, had not solely made it into our history books just on his association with Georgiana Cavendish. Nor was it because of his eventual rise to the office of British Prime Minister. No, despite his important role in the political sphere. Ironically, Gray's fame, his lasting fame, at least, would come from perhaps the most British thing that you

can become famous for. T Following the death of his father in eighteen oh seven, Charles inherited his father's title Earl Gray. Yes, that Earl Gray. As is often the case, there are conflicting theories as to the authenticity of the ties between the Bergamot flavored black tea and the Earl. Some say that the tea was given to him as a gift by a Chinese man whose son was rescued

from drowning by one of Gray's men. The Twinings Tea website claims that the Earl asked Richard Twining himself to recreate the blend after quote he was presented with the exquisite recipe by an envoy on his return from China. In the end, like most of history's tall tales, the details will likely remain lost to us. But the next time you enjoy a cup of Earl Gray, maybe take a moment to remember the man behind the tea or

the woman who loved him. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mank. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danishwortz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward Courtney Sunder and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by rema Il Kayali, with supervising producer Josh Thaine and executive producers

Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.