ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

The greatest scandal of the entire Regency period was the behaviour of the Prince Regent towards his wife, Princess Caroline of Brunswick. Caroline of Brunswick as a young woman It was a scandal that went public and involved the entire nation rather like the unhappy marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in our own time. Although she married the heir to the throne, Caroline, like Diana, was never crowned Queen. Her unjust treatment gained her the sympathy of women as different as Jane Austen  - who wrote that she took sides with the Princess "because she is a woman"  - and Elizabeth Crave n, the Georgian feminist writer. When Caroline was shipped over from Germany to marry George in 1795, he was aged 33 so he could hardly complain that she was 27.  She had endured a very strict, confined upbringing which was certainly not the case with George. He was the most pampered, spoilt brat in the world and would have been a nightmare husband to any wife. From ...

Elizabeth Craven had four daughters and three sons. The girls were named Elizabeth, Maria-Margaretta, Georgiana and Arabella, and of the four of them Maria was certainly the most socially successful.   The Hon. Maria Margaretta Craven, later Lady Sefton. She was popular and after making a brilliant marriage became one of the patronesses of the celebrated Almack's Club, whose balls at Almack's Assembly Rooms were more exclusive than the Court itself.  This miniature portrait shows Lady Sefton when young and she is a striking beauty, with some resemblance to her mother in the long neck and shape of the nose. Her hair appears to be very black, but in fact she is wearing a headband of black lace, and a black-trimmed stole, suggesting that she is in mourning. When you look closely her hair is actually chestnut brown, not unlike her mother's.      The girls had rather a difficult time as teenagers as their parents separated, and the girls were ...