(1900-1974)
His lover was:
Beryl Markham (1902-1986)
British-Kenyan aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer & author
" . . . Beryl treated sex more like a man, as a necessary function like brushing one's teeth, or eating. Very few of her lovers touched her heart. She had a scandalous affair with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. The son of George V, Beryl met him when he accompanied his brother, the Prince of Wales on safari. Unfortunately they were not very discreet. When Beryl's husband at the time, Mansfield Markham, found out, he threatened to sue for divorce and name the Prince as a correspondent. In order to keep his name out of the courts, Prince Henry agreed to put 15,000 pounds into a trust for Beryl, which would pay her an annuity for the rest of her life. . . ." (Scandalous Woman)
"During the summer the friendship between Beryl and Prince Henry flowered again, but despite the disquiet that had been caused, he ws never a major figure in her emotional life. Beryl liked Prince Henry for himself, and probably also enjoyed the privileges that went with the position of a royal mistress; and when the affair ended she was sad and rather lonely, but not heartbroken. In fact, so far, she had never enjoyed a relationship with a man who 'really mattered' to her. . . ." (Straight On Till Morning: The Life of Beryl Markham)
Brothers sharing her bed: " . . . (T)he prince and his devoted equerry, a Cambridge-educated Canadian called Howard Kerr, came to blows and had to be pulled apart. The root of it all was Harry's infatuation with a married woman, Mrs. Beryl; Markham. Some years earlier he'd travelled to Kenya with his eldest brother, the Prince of Wales --- later Edward VIII --- on a safari which morphed into a babes 'n' booze fest that would put the present-day Harry's Vegas larks in the shade. The royal brothers shared the bed (thankfully on different evenings) of Mrs. Markham, daughter of a Happy Valley racehorse trainer and unusually a woman who'd made a name for herself as a pilot. Striking rather than beautiful, she had a voracious appetite for men. But while the Prince of Wales had the sense to move on. Harry could not: he made her his long-time mistress. Though her life was centred on Kenya, he paid for a permanent suite at the Grosvenor Hotel, a five-minute walk from the back gates of Buckingham Palace, so that he could simply move in with her. . . ." (Daily Mail)
Brothers sharing her bed: " . . . (T)he prince and his devoted equerry, a Cambridge-educated Canadian called Howard Kerr, came to blows and had to be pulled apart. The root of it all was Harry's infatuation with a married woman, Mrs. Beryl; Markham. Some years earlier he'd travelled to Kenya with his eldest brother, the Prince of Wales --- later Edward VIII --- on a safari which morphed into a babes 'n' booze fest that would put the present-day Harry's Vegas larks in the shade. The royal brothers shared the bed (thankfully on different evenings) of Mrs. Markham, daughter of a Happy Valley racehorse trainer and unusually a woman who'd made a name for herself as a pilot. Striking rather than beautiful, she had a voracious appetite for men. But while the Prince of Wales had the sense to move on. Harry could not: he made her his long-time mistress. Though her life was centred on Kenya, he paid for a permanent suite at the Grosvenor Hotel, a five-minute walk from the back gates of Buckingham Palace, so that he could simply move in with her. . . ." (Daily Mail)
Henry the mad little gallop: "Her conquests throughout the 1920s were legendary. . . (T)here was Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, third in line to the throne. (Markham described the latter as a 'mad little gallop', though Queen Mary viewed it less frivolously.) Markham first met the prince in 1928 when he and his brother, Edward, Prince of Wales, came to Kenya on a safari. it mattered to Markham neither that she was married at the time to Mansfield Markham, nor that she was four months pregnant with his son. In 1929 she gave birth in London to a boy and a few weeks later began visiting the prince at Buckingham Palace. Eventually, the queen found out about the affair and demanded that it end. Markham was given an annuity of 15,000 pounds on condition that she leave England at once. She handed her son into the care of her parents-in-law and returned to Kenya. . . ." (Telegraph)
Beryl's physical appearance & personal traits: "A blue-eyed blonde, Markham was nearly 6 ft. tall. In her excellent biography, Straight on Till Morning: The Life of Beryl Markham (Abacus, 10.99 pounds), Mary S. Lovell records how one of Markham's contemporaries described her as 'a magnificent creature very feline. It was like watching a beautiful golden lioness when she walked across the room." (Telegraph)
Beryl's personal & family background: "Markham was born in Rutland to Charles and Clara Clutterback in October 1902. Two years later she moved with her parents and older brother, Richard, to a farm on the western edge of the Rift Valley in Kenya. Richard suffered in the harsh climate, and at the end of 1906 he and his mother returned to England. Beryl remained with her father, and it was only years later she found out the real reason of her mother's flight: she had fallen in love with an army officer serving in east Africa, whom she subsequently married. Following the officer's death in action in 1918, Clara returned to Kenya. Mother and daughter established a civil relationship, but Beryl bore the emotional scars of the abandonment for the rest of her life." (Telegraph)
 |
| Prince William of Gloucester |
 |
Prince William of Gloucester @Tumblr |
Lover in 1968-1972.
Hungarian divorcee.
The Secret Story of Prince William of Gloucester
First encounter.
"It was in this role that in 1968 at the age of 26, he was posted to Japan where, within a week, he met Zsuzsi at a party. 'My friend was giving a masquerade ball and we sent an invite to Prince William. On it I wrote 'Dear Prince Charming. We heard a party is not a party without you and besides that I’m missing a slipper’ . I signed it Cinderella,’ she recalls now. 'At the party he came over to my table and asked if he may borrow Cinderella for a dance. And that’s when the relationship began.’" (Telegraph)
"Former model and stewardess Zsuzsi Starkloff has claimed to have had a long-term relationship with the prince. According to Starkloff, the two met in Japan in 1968. But because she was twice divorced and had two children, William's family disapproved of the relationship. According to her they maintained their relationship up to his death in 1972 but the last time they met was in August 1970." (The Sun)
Personal & family background.
"Born in the 1930s to a working-class family in Hungary, Zsuzsi was married at 16 and by her late-20s was twice divorced, with a young daughter, Andrea. Having moved to Tokyo with her second husband, an American pilot, she worked as a PA and model to make ends meet, becoming for a time the face of Revlon cosmetics in Japan." (Financial Review)
2. Nicole Sieff.
"William is also said to have started a relationship with Nicole Sieff (née Moschietto) in the early 1970s, who was also a divorcee and had two sons." (The Sun)
 |
| Prince William Frederick @Wikipedia |
(1776-1834)
Duke of Gloucester & Edinburgh
Earl of Connaught 1805.
Husband of: Mary of Great Britain, mar 1816
 |
| Aurora Wilhelmina Koskull Countess of Brahe |
Aurora Wilhelmina Koskull (1778-1852)
Countess Brahe.
Lover in 1803.
Swedish lady-in-waiting and salonist
Maid of Honour to Queen Frederica of Sweden.
Swedish lady-in-waiting and salonist
Maid of Honour to Queen Frederica of Sweden.
Daughter of: Baron Otto Anders Koskull & Amalia Beata Silfversparre.
Natural Offspring:
Natural Offspring:
1. Ulrika Wilhelmina Brahe.
2. Magnus Brahe.
 |
| Magnus Fredrik Brahe |
Wife of: Magnus Fredrik Brahe (1756-1826), Swedish Minister to France, mar 18061)
 |
| William Henry, Duke of Gloucester |
1st Duke of Gloucester
 |
| Lady Almeria Carpenter 1775 @Wikipedia |
1) Almeria Carpenter (1752-1809)
Lover in 1783-1790s.
British courtier & royal mistress.
Lady-in-waiting to Duchess of Gloucester
 |
| Lady Almeria Carpenter 1780 @Wikipedia |
Daughter of: George Carpenter, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell & Frances Clifton.
Natural offspring:
1. Louis Maria La Coast (1782-1835), mar Godfrey Macdonald, 3rd Baron Macdonald of Slate.
The admiration of men and the envy of women.
"Lady Caroline's elder sister, Almeria (1752-1809), was described by the London Magazine of 1774 as having 'like a celestial meteor . . . long streamed through the circles of the court -- the admiration of the men, and envy of the women'. The courtesan Perdita Robinson recollected in her memoirs that on one occasion 'As soon as I entered the Pantheon Rotunda, I never shall forget the impression which my mind received: the splendour of the scene, the dome illuminated with variegated lamps, the music, the beauty of the women, seemed to present a circle of enchantment.' She remembered 'that the most lovely of fair forms met my eyes in that of Lady Almeria Carpenter' and that the 'first Countess of Tyrconnel also appeared with considerable eclat'. Lady Almeria was described by Nathaniel Wraxall as 'one of the most beautiful women of her time, but to whom nature had been sparing of intellectual attractions'. She 'reigned at Gloucester House. The duchess remained indeed its nominal mistress; but Lady Almeria constituted its ornament and pride' and was 'Famed for Disdain of Virtue . . . for Ridicule of Scruple, and Love of nothing but that Gaite de Coeur, which she learnt in her pupilage from the lessons of her Father'. The Female Jockey Club satirised her as Prince William Henry, the duke of Gloucester's mistress, and as having acquired from him the habit of obscene and profane expressions. Their sexual relationship began in the early 1780s and in January 1782 Lady Almeria 'gave birth to a daughter, Louisa Maria La Coast (d.1835), who was brought up by Farley Edsir, Gloucester's steward who kept a dairy farm at Hampton Court', at Geneva and Italy in the mid 1780s." (Uvedale Prince (1747-1829: Decoding the Picturesque: 36)
"Lady Caroline's elder sister, Almeria (1752-1809), was described by the London Magazine of 1774 as having 'like a celestial meteor . . . long streamed through the circles of the court -- the admiration of the men, and envy of the women'. The courtesan Perdita Robinson recollected in her memoirs that on one occasion 'As soon as I entered the Pantheon Rotunda, I never shall forget the impression which my mind received: the splendour of the scene, the dome illuminated with variegated lamps, the music, the beauty of the women, seemed to present a circle of enchantment.' She remembered 'that the most lovely of fair forms met my eyes in that of Lady Almeria Carpenter' and that the 'first Countess of Tyrconnel also appeared with considerable eclat'. Lady Almeria was described by Nathaniel Wraxall as 'one of the most beautiful women of her time, but to whom nature had been sparing of intellectual attractions'. She 'reigned at Gloucester House. The duchess remained indeed its nominal mistress; but Lady Almeria constituted its ornament and pride' and was 'Famed for Disdain of Virtue . . . for Ridicule of Scruple, and Love of nothing but that Gaite de Coeur, which she learnt in her pupilage from the lessons of her Father'. The Female Jockey Club satirised her as Prince William Henry, the duke of Gloucester's mistress, and as having acquired from him the habit of obscene and profane expressions. Their sexual relationship began in the early 1780s and in January 1782 Lady Almeria 'gave birth to a daughter, Louisa Maria La Coast (d.1835), who was brought up by Farley Edsir, Gloucester's steward who kept a dairy farm at Hampton Court', at Geneva and Italy in the mid 1780s." (Uvedale Prince (1747-1829: Decoding the Picturesque: 36)
" . . . [B]efore his death he went the way of most princes, and loved another woman, Lady Almeria Carpenter, lady of the bed-chamber to his duchess. Reference to this domestic scandal is made in one of Horace Walpole's letters. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall also, in his memoirs, says Lady Almeria, 'one of the most beautiful women of her time, but one to whom Nature had been sparing of intellectual attractions, reigned at Gloucester House. The duchess remained its nominal mistress, but Lady Almeria constituted its ornament and its pride.'. . . ." (Molloy, Vol. 3: 151).
.jpg)
Effects on Lovers' Family, Other People and Society.
" . . . This siren caused the duchess such annoyance, that a separation between husband and wife was agreed to in 1787. . . ." (Molloy, Vol. 3: 15)
 |
Humphrey of England Duke of Gloucester 15th century |
(1390-1447)
Duke of Gloucester
Earl of Pembroke
Lord of Tenby & Cilgerran 1414
Duke of Gloucester
Earl of Pembroke
Lord of Tenby & Cilgerran 1414
Protector of England 1422
Guardian & Lieutenant of England 1420.
Guardian & Lieutenant of England 1420.
Son of Henry IV of England & Mary de Bohun.
 |
| Jakoba of Bavaria @Wikipedia |
Husband of: Jakoba von Bayern (1401-1436), mar 1422
Humphrey's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Humphrey was affable and charming, but at the same time could be frivolous and irresponsible. He was handsome and well-mannered, kind and generous, fluent and persuasive. Sadly, he was also impatient, reckless, inflexible, and arrogant. These latter qualities were not those necessary for a successful diplomatic or military career. However, he was cultured and educated. He probably attended Balliol College, Oxford. He could read English, French and Latin well, and Italian passably, and took great pleasure in the reading and collecting of books. He spent lavishly on his library, which contained many ancient classics imported from Italy. He gave at least 280 works to the University of Oxford, the finest bequest yet received from any source, and one vital to the advancement of the English Renaissance." (Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings: War and Politics in Fifteenth Century England)
His lovers were:
 |
| Eleanor Cobham Duchess of Gloucester |
Lover in 1425-1428
Daughter of: Reginald Cobham, 3rd Baron Sterborough, 3rd Lord Cobham & Eleanor Culpeper, daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper.
Natural offspring.
a. Arthur de Cursy
b. Antigone Plantagenet married Sir Henry Grey (d.1449), Earl of Tankerville
" . . . And even before the annulment [of the marriage of Humphrey], he had already begun an affair with another of her handmaidens, an Englishwoman named Eleanor de Cobham. He later married (1428) his mistress Eleanor (d.1454), daughter of Reginald de Brooke, Baron Cobham. She was the mother of his two natural children, Arthur de Cursy and Antigone." (Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings)
" . . . And even before the annulment [of the marriage of Humphrey], he had already begun an affair with another of her handmaidens, an Englishwoman named Eleanor de Cobham. He later married (1428) his mistress Eleanor (d.1454), daughter of Reginald de Brooke, Baron Cobham. She was the mother of his two natural children, Arthur de Cursy and Antigone." (Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings)
"Around this time [1436], a complaint was made to Parliament, by a 'Mistress Stoke, and other bold women' alleging that the Duke of Gloucester had allowed his wife, Jacqueline, to be held prisoner by the Duke of Brabant, and that he himself was living in sin with Jacqueline had been annulled, and that he had since married Eleanor de Cobham in 1436. Meanwhile, Eleanor's relatively humble birth and sullied reputation led many to believe that she was unfit to be the wife of a royal prince, and from 1435 onward, the wife of the heir-presumptive. She exacerbated this by her ostentatious display, arrogance, and apparently open aspiration to be queen." (Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings)
"The pope this year published his definitive sentence in the suit of the duke of Brabant, by which he declared that the marriage between the duke of Gloucester and Jacqueline duchess of Bavaria was null and void; and that if the duke of Brabant should die, the said duke of Gloucester and the duchess Jacqueline could not be legally married to each other. The duke of Gloucester, on being informed of this sentence of the pope, took to wife a woman of low degree compared with his rank, named Eleanor Cobham, of whom mention has been before made. The duke had for some time lived with her as his mistress; and her character was not spotless in regard to her connexions with others beside the duke. This created much wonder in France and in England, considering that the duke did not act conformably to the blood he sprung from." (The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet: 535)
"The duke and duchess of Gloucester now separated with many tears and lamentations; and he departed with from four to five thousand
English combatants for St. Gilart, and hence to Yvins near Bihain, where he lay the first night: he then continued his route by By, and after some das arrived at Calais; but in all the countries through which he passed he committed no waste, but paid for all his provisions very peaceably. He carried with him to England Eleanor de Cobham, whom he had brought with him as companion to the duchess Jacqueline, and was afterwards married to her." (The Chronicales of Enguerrand de Monstrelet: 522)
" . . . But if so, his attentions were but fleeting, for among the ladies-in-waiting brought from England was Eleanor Cobham, 'a handsome, greedy, sensual woman of doubtful antecedents'. soon after the duke's return to England, it was common gossip that she was his mistress. Henceforth, Jacqueline meant less and less. . . ." (Six Medieval Men and Women: 13)
" . . . She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to have indulged in undue familiarity with her, before he was a widower. . . This weak and licentious woman, being now Duchess of Gloucester, and wife to the Lord Protector, directed her ambition to the higher title and prerogatives of a queen. . . ." (Godwin: 177)
"So Joanna went quietly. From Havering she was taken to Rotherhithe, then to Pevensey, where she spent the first months of 1420, and finally on to Leeds Castle. There she remained, in the custody of Sir John Pelham, until six weeks before the King’s death. The conditions of her captivity indicate, though, that even the royal council tacitly acknowledged their accusations were spurious. In the first months of her imprisonment at Pevensey, the average expenditure for Joanna’s upkeep was thirty-seven pounds a week, including twelve to sixteen shillings for her stables (which suggests she had the freedom to ride out), wages for nineteen grooms and seven pages, a harp, aquavit to keep up her spirits and a cage for her songbird. She also continued to dress in royal style, ordering furs, silks and delicate linens from Flanders. She had a gold girdle, silver gilt buckle, gold chains, a gilt basin, silver gilt knives, a silver candlestick and a gold rosary. Medicines were ordered from her Portuguese physician Pedro de Alcoba. The period after March 1420 shows Joanna less well provided for, with an average expenditure of eleven pounds per week, but she still had her carriage and was able to enjoy delicacies such as green ginger, rosewater (which was used as a cosmetic as well as in cookery) and cardamom. Among the foodstuffs and household goods recorded in the accounts are ‘wheat, barley, beans, peas, oats, wine, ale, cows, calves, sheep, lambs, pigs, little pigs, capons, hens, poultry, geeses, ducks, pheasants, partridges, coneys, salt and fresh fish . . . hay, litter, coals, firewood, rushes’.5 She was also able to keep up with some business matters. She employed a clerk, Thomas Lilbourne, and two sergeants-at-law were paid to pursue claims for queens-gold." (erenow)
Affair's end & aftermath.
"Eleanor admitted consulting sorcerers long ago, to make Sir Humphrey fall in love with her, to make him marry her, and to allow her to bear him a legitimate heir. She was tried by both the Church (which condemned all sorcery as evil), and the State. Her accomplices were condemned to death. Eleanor was required to perform humiliating penances in London, and she was made to divorce Sir Humphrey. The Duke of Gloucester never married again. Eleanor Cobham was imprisoned and moved about over time. She was imprisoned until her death in 1454."(Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings)
2) Jeanne, Madame de Warigny.
2) Jeanne, Madame de Warigny.
" . . . During his [Humphrey] marriage to Jacqueline, Gloucester was reputed to have had an affair with one of her handmaidens, Jeanne, Madame de Warigny (wife of Henri, Sire de Warigny) . . . ." (Squires, Knights, Barons, Kings)
"All this shows Gloucester in a poor enough light, but worse remains to be told. Although he wrote from Calais promising Jacqueline that he would soon be back, he had, in fact, turned his affections elsewhere. 'Dame Jacque de la desiree', as she was sometimes called, had in her train a certain Madame de Warigny, and it looks as if she entertained Gloucester for part of is sojourn in Hainault. . . ." (Six Medieval Men and Women: 13)
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester's first spouse.
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester's first spouse.
" . . . Gloucester married (c.1422) Jacqueline of Hainaut but abandoned (1425) her after their disastrous military expedition to Hainaut. A papal decree of 1428 invalidated that marriage and permitted him to marry his mistress, Eleanor Cobham, but he was severely criticized. . . ." (The Molloys)
"It was perhaps for these reasons that he delayed marrying until a comparatively late age for a man of his time and position, since it was only in 1422, at the age of thirty-two, that he married Jacqueline of Bavaria, daughter of William IV, Count of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland. She had been twice previously married, but had quarreled bitterly with her second husband, John of Brabant, over the disposal of her territory for a period to John of Bavaria, and in desperation fled to England in April 1421. As Warden of the Cinque Ports it was Humphrey's duty to receive this twenty-year-old girl at Dover and to escort her to his brother Henry V at Westminster. Jacqueline was only a pawn in Henry's continental policy, whether as a help in his transaction with Burgundy or in other ways not clear, but for that reason she was made very welcome, and given the handsome allowance of 100 pounds a month while resident in England. Before long it was clear that Humphrey was interested in this guest of his brother, but his advances were postponed for a time since he was absent in France throughout the rest of 1421, and only returned to England early in 1422. Matters quickly ripened between the two , and despite the fact that her marriage to John of Brabant was but dubiously dissolved, according to some authorities, Gloucester married her probably in September or October of that year. What was it that attracted this handsome experienced roue to Jacqueline? Certainly not her beauty if contemporary portraits do not belie her. Perhaps her imperious, passionate temperament appealed to him, but the likelihood is (as early historians asserted) that it was her inheritance which attracted him. . . ." (Six Medieval Men and Women: 11)
"It was perhaps for these reasons that he delayed marrying until a comparatively late age for a man of his time and position, since it was only in 1422, at the age of thirty-two, that he married Jacqueline of Bavaria, daughter of William IV, Count of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland. She had been twice previously married, but had quarreled bitterly with her second husband, John of Brabant, over the disposal of her territory for a period to John of Bavaria, and in desperation fled to England in April 1421. As Warden of the Cinque Ports it was Humphrey's duty to receive this twenty-year-old girl at Dover and to escort her to his brother Henry V at Westminster. Jacqueline was only a pawn in Henry's continental policy, whether as a help in his transaction with Burgundy or in other ways not clear, but for that reason she was made very welcome, and given the handsome allowance of 100 pounds a month while resident in England. Before long it was clear that Humphrey was interested in this guest of his brother, but his advances were postponed for a time since he was absent in France throughout the rest of 1421, and only returned to England early in 1422. Matters quickly ripened between the two , and despite the fact that her marriage to John of Brabant was but dubiously dissolved, according to some authorities, Gloucester married her probably in September or October of that year. What was it that attracted this handsome experienced roue to Jacqueline? Certainly not her beauty if contemporary portraits do not belie her. Perhaps her imperious, passionate temperament appealed to him, but the likelihood is (as early historians asserted) that it was her inheritance which attracted him. . . ." (Six Medieval Men and Women: 11)
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester's second spouse.
"Beaufort's chance came with Humphrey's unwise second marriage to his mistress Eleanor of Cobham, a commoner. As Humphrey was heir apparent should his nephew King Henry died childless, Eleanor had the enticing prospect of becoming queen. After having her horoscope cast, she decided to give fate a nudge by melting a wax effigy of Henry in a fire. Discovered, Eleanor and her accomplices were charged with witchcraft, locked in the Tower, and tried before a Church court... Eleanor escaped the ultimate penalty. Instead, she was required to do public penance, walking barefoot through London for three days, before being confined to a succession of distant castles, ending up at Peel in the Isle of Man, where she died in 1457." (Jones: 92)
No comments:
Post a Comment