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Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806) was an English noblewoman and Whig political activist who was married to William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire.

Biography[]

Georgiana Spencer was the daughter of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer and Georgiana Spencer, Countess Spencer. On 7 June 1774, she was married to the country's most eligible bachelor, William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, one of the most wealthy and powerful men in Great Britain. Cavendish was unfair to his wife, having her "practice mothering" on his illegitimate child with Charlotte Spencer and claiming that she failed in her obligations as a wife after she gave birth to a daughter rather than a son. She later befriended Bess Foster, but her husband had an affair with Foster due to his dislike for Georgiana. Georgiana responded by having an affair with Charles Grey, and, when she suggested to her husband that she should be allowed an affair just as he had been, her husband raped her, leading to the birth of a male child. She gave birth to Eliza Courtney after an affair with Grey, and Grey raised his daughter under the pretense that she was his niece. She eventually came to terms with William and died in 1806 at the age of 48.

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