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Lily, Duchess of Marlborough (1854 - 1909): A Portrait with Husbands by Sally E Svenson (view source)
Revision as of 14:44, 14 March 2012
, 14:44, 14 March 2012no edit summary
Lily's first husband died relatively young and this was to be a feature of her life. She was chatelaine of Blenheim was just four years before the eighth Duke died with shocking suddenness. Lily had been well aware that Marlborough had married her for her money but there does seem to have been a lot of mutual affection between them, much of it engendered by Lily's willingness to adapt to her husband's way of life. She would marry for the third and final time not long afterwards, this time to the Anglo-Irish Lord William de la Poer Beresford, a man with popularity akin to that of a modern film star.
The book is wide-ranging and authoritative as well as being an interesting read about someone whom history seems to have passed over. Three Two American women have been Duchess of Marlborough. Jennie Jerome is well known, not least for being the mother of Winston Churchill, but she was married to the eighth Duke's younger brother. The other Duchess was Consuelo Vanderbilt is , brought to prominence by her family connections and it's good that the balance has been at least partially redressed by this very readable biography. I'd like to thank the author or sending a copy to the Bookbag.
The gardens at Blenheim were designed by Capability Brown. You can read more about him in [[Lancelot 'Capability' Brown: The Omnipotent Magician 1716-1783 by Jane Brown]] For more about a contemporary of Lily we can recommend [[Daisy: The Lives and Loves of the Countess of Warwick by Sushila Anand]].