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| Philip Stanhope 2nd Earl of Chesterfield |
(1634-1714)
1656-1714
Husband of:
1. Anne Percy (d.1654), daughter of Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland
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| Elizabeth Butler Countess of Chesterfield @Wikipedia |
2. Elizabeth Butler (1640-1665), mar 1660, daughter of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond & Elizabeth Preston
"Together Elizabeth and Chesterfield had one daughter, Lady Elizabeth Stanhope, later Countess of Strathmore, although the child's paternity was in doubt. According to Samuel Pepys, theirs was a marriage of convenience, but Chesterfield, despite his own past conduct with Barbara Villiers, became jealous when rumours spread that his wife was having affairs with both James Hamilton and James, Duke of York, with whom she is said to have been caught in flagrante delicto. On the other hand, he describes Elizabeth as 'a virtuous lady." (Wikipedia)
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| Elizabeth Dormer Countess of Chesterfield @Wikipedia |
3. Elizabeth Dormer, daughter of Charles Dormer, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon
Lover in 1656
"Ormond's children enjoyed stormier relationships with their spouses. Elizabeth had married Philip, second earl of Chesterfield, but he made no secret of his love for his mistress, Lady Castlemaine. A well informed courtier described how Chesterfield had wed Elizabeth 'without loving her, and had lived some time time with her in such coolness as to leave her in no doubt of his indifference.'. . . . " (Making Ireland English: 203)
Real Father of the Countess of Sussex.
". . . It is evident from the letters in the present publication, wherein she is repeatedly and warmly addresses as 'Mrs. Villiers,' that the Earl of Chesterfield had received the ultimate favours in the power of a female to bestow, before her union with Mr. Palmer, to whom she adverts with marked aversion or contempt in a future letter in this collection. At all events, the manuscript from which these papers are collated, furnishes intelligible proof of their voluptuous intimacy, and in terms adapted to the glowing fervour of the subject. In the thirteenth year of Charles II, Mr. Palmer was created Earl of Castlemaine, in Ireland; and during her cohabitation with her husband she had a daughter, born in February 1661. This, says Lord Dartmouth, was 'the late Countess of Sussex, whom the king adopted as his daughter, though Lord Castlemaine always looked upon her to be his, and left her his estate when he died; but she is generally understood to belong to another, the old Earl of Chesterfield, whom she resembled very much both in face and person.' (Letters of Philip, Second Earl of Chesterfield, to Several Celebrated Individuals of the Time of Charles II, James II, William III and Queen Anne: 77)
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| Philip Stanhope 4th Earl of Chesterfield @Wikipedia |
Husband of Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham (1693-1778), mar 1733, natural daughter of George I of Great Britain & Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal.
"The pursuit of Lord Chesterfield by evangelical ladies of rank forms one of the humorous chapters of his biography. As we have seen, the high priestess of the movement, Lady Huntingdon herself, was an intimate friend. Her sister and convert, the Lady Fanny Shirley, had been his reputed mistress; another acquaintance, Fanny's sister-in-law, the Lady Margaret Hastings, married Benjamin Ingham, a disciple of John Wesley; Chesterfield's sister, Lady Gertrude Hotham, and his sister-in-law, the Countess d'Elitz, became Methodists; finally, Lady Chesterfield herself seems to have been converted. . . ." (Lord Chesterfield and His World: 236)
His lovers were:
1) Claudine Guérin de Tencin (1682-1749)
" . . . There in his middle age appeared the Earl of Chesterfield, no longer le petit Stanhope, but grown in fame in not in inches, an ambassador with ribbon and star. What did the past of Madame de Tencin---the cruelty, the faithlessness and lust, the sordid episodes? . . . ." (Lord Chesterfield and His World: 94)
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| Lady Frances Shirley @The Twickenham Museum |
2) Frances Shirley (1707-1778)
"She was the younger daughter of the Earl of Ferrers, lived at Twickenham, and belonged to Pope's coterie. She was twelve years younger than Chesterfield. No precautions were taken to conceal, nor were any gestures of secrecy made in regard to their mutual philandering, which was as open as the noonday sun. Melusina, as usual, might just as well not have existed. . . ." (Lord Chesterfield and His World: 176)
". . . Chesterfield seems to have celebrated the union by taking into his keeping a new mistress, Lady Frances or Fanny Shirley (1702-1778), 'a great beauty,' with whom he had long maintained relations. . . ." (Wikisource)
" . . . In the meantime and for many years London gossips observed Lady Frances Shirley on the arm of Lord Chesterfield at any significant social event." (Women Voice Men: Gender in European Culture: 8)
"15(xxiii). Lady Frances Shirley born May 5 1707 died July 15 1778; lived at Twickenham with her niece Lady Huntington; reputed to have been a great beauty in her day; rumors of affairs with Lord Chesterfield; Subject of a famous poem by Alexander Pope, esq." (Shirley Family Association)
Trivia.
"Brewer's: Flirt. A coquette. The word is from the verb flirt, as, “to flirt a fan.” The fan being used for coquetting, those who coquetted were called fan-flirts. Lady Frances Shirley, the favourite of Lord Chesterfield, introduced the word. Flirt is allied to flutter, flit, jerk, etc." (Infoplease)
3) Madelina Elizabeth du Bouchet.
" . . . In 1732, Madelina Elizabeth du Bouchet – a French governess – gave birth to his illegitimate son, Philip, for whose advice on life Chesterfield wrote the Letters to his Son. . . ." (Wikipedia)
". . . But we have yet to mention one more of a different kind, which, from the standpoint of English letters and from that of his own permanent fame, was of greater important still; for if he had not seduced Elizabeth du Bouchet, a governess or companion in the house of one of the van Wassenaer family, his ill-starred son would not have been born, nor would Chesterfield's commentaries upon life have been written, at least in their present version." (Lord Chesterfield and His World: 143)
"While Ambassador at the Hague, Chesterfield met Elizabeth du Bouchet, governess or companion in a Dutch family; she bore him a son in 1732. Chesterfield brought 'le Bouchet' to London and set up his little family in separate lodgings, where his son was surrounded by governesses and French tutors, as he himself had been. . . ." (Women Voice Men: 8)
Personal & family background.
"That so little is know about Mademoiselle du Bouchet is of itself significant of this affair. She was not an important conquest; possibly she was not a conquest at all in the sense that much art or persuasion had been required in the winning of her. . . He had nothing to boast about in regard to her. She belonged to the category of purchasable gratifications and had exactly the brief importance of such. She was of good French Huguenot ancestry. In his letters to Torck, her lover refers to her simply as 'la Bouchet' without any other qualification or trace of affection, as, in short, one would refer to a negligible mistress. It has been noted by various biographers that in the letters to his son he speaks of her always with respect. . . But there are als indications that he does not take her very seriously and is at no pains to conceal the fact from his son. . . ." (Lord Chesterfield and His World: 143)
References:
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