THE DUCHESS COUNTESS

Entertaining biography of Elizabeth Chudleigh (1721-1788), a maid of honor to the Princess of Wales who flaunted the patriarchal conventions of her day.

Elizabeth, writes British journalist Ostler, “used soft power and the art of public relations, before either had those names.” As “the great anti-heroine of the Georgian era,” she served many roles: “duchess, countess, courtier, socialite, hostess, mariner, property developer, celebrity, vodka distiller, press manipulator, arts patron, bigamist.” Ostler, a writer with considerable flair, evidently admires Elizabeth’s chutzpah, and she portrays the convicted bigamist as perhaps suffering from a borderline personality disorder but always refreshingly surprising and fearless. The subject of egregious misogynist portrayals by male writers after her death, Elizabeth was simply larger than life. She never let misfortune drag her down, starting from the early death of her father, Col. Thomas Chudleigh, the director of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea. His death left her and her brother bereft and lacking in marriage prospects. However, Elizabeth was never short of luck. At the age of 22, a well-connected relative recommended her for the position of maid of honor to Princess Augusta, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales, a prestigious position that allowed her to shine and attract suitors. Her early, passionate, impetuous marriage to Augustus Hervey, the third Earl of Bristol, was kept secret, and as time passed, the two hoped the bond would somehow dissolve. Elizabeth’s subsequent long-term bond with Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston, forced her into a court of law and, ultimately, a trial for bigamy just at the moment when the U.S. declared its independence from England. The trial, writes the author, represented the “distracted incompetence of a tired colonial power engaged in the displacement activity of persecuting an errant, aristocratic woman.” Undaunted, Elizabeth kept reinventing herself. Ably capturing her singular character, Ostler displays her deep knowledge of the era, smoothly melding history and biography.

An indomitable subject finds a biographer worthy of her.