United States of America (USA): Jerome family; nineteenth- century New York fashionable society; Lord Randolph and Jennie in (1876); WSC visits (October 1895); Vanderbilt family; WSC’s lecture tour of (1900); negative views of Sunny; Women’s suffrage movement in; Great War and; furore over Sunny/Consuelo annulment; WSC tour of (1929); Randolph’s lecture tour of (1930-1); Sarah Churchill’s elopement to (1936); plans by WSC to bring in to WW2; WSC’s first wartime visit to (August 1941); Pearl Harbor attack (7 December 1941); WSC’s visits (1941-2); WSC visits (1943); Consuelo lives in post-WW2; WSC visits (1946); WSC visits (January 1953); WSC’s final visit to (1963)
upper classes: Churchill heritage; ‘arranged’ marriages in; servants and; duties/taxes and; Victorian prosperity for; education of girls; child-rearing and; divorce and†; land ownership; American heiresses and; etiquette; adultery and; charitable/voluntary work and; lifestyle of; Hitler and; fear of Communism
Vanbrugh, John
Vanderbilt, Mrs Alva; marriage plans for Consuelo; high standards of; training of Consuelo; chooses Consuelo’s clothes; relationship with Oliver Belmont; Consuelo’s first wedding and; pro Boer views; dislike of Sunny; women’s suffrage and; reconciliation with Consuelo; house at Èze-sur-Mer; Consuelo’s annulment and; death of (26 January 1933)
Vanderbilt, Anne (née Rutherfurd)
Vanderbilt, Consuelo see Marlborough, Consuelo, 9th Duchess of (née Vanderbilt, later Balsan)
Vanderbilt, Gloria
Vanderbilt, William K.; breakdown of marriage to Alva; Consuelo’s first wedding and; death of (22 July 1920)
Versailles, Palace of
Versailles, Treaty of (1919)
Victoria, Queen; death of Prince Albert and*; at Osborne House; Aylesford affair and; Lord Randolph and; Diamond Jubilee (June 1897); death of (21 January 1901)
Victoria and Albert, Royal Yacht
Villiers, Barbara (Lady Castlemaine, later Duchess of St Albans)
Walden, Thomas
Wales, Albert Edward, Prince of*; Cowes Regatta and; Jennie Churchill and; Jerome ball in honour of (1860); Jennie Churchill presented to; marriage (March 1863); official visit to India (1875); Aylesford scandal and; Blandford (8 th Duke) and; boycott of the Churchills; reconciliation with Churchills; WSC and; at Sandringham; Jennie Churchill–Cornwallis relationship and; as King Edward VII*; Randolph’s cause of death and
Wales, Alexandra, Princess of; Cowes Regatta and; birth of first child Albert (1864)*; marriage (March 1863); Aylesford affair and
Wales, Edward, Prince of; as King Edward VIII then Duke of Windsor see Edward VIII, King
Wall Street Crash (October 1929)
Walpole, Horace
War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14)
Warrender, Hugh
Warwick, Frances ‘Daisy’, Countess of
Waugh, Evelyn; Brideshead Revisited*; as Randolph’s fellow officer; on Randolph’s marriage to Pam; reports to Randolph on Pam; on Randolph’s behaviour; writes to June for Randolph; on Randolph’s marriage to June; Randolph’s health and; on Randolph’s defeat at Devonport; argues with Randolph about Catholicism; on Randolph
Wedgwood, Josiah*
Wellington, Duke of*
Wells, H.G.
West Point
Westminster, 2nd Duke of (Hugh Grosvenor)
Westminster Abbey
Whistler, James McNeill
Whyte, Maryott (Cousin Moppet)
Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany
William III, King
Wilson, Colonel Gordon
Wilson, General Maitland
Wilson, Harold
Wilson, Muriel
Wilson, Sarah, Lady (Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill); birth of (1865); marriage to Lt-Col. Gordon Chesney Wilson (November 1891)*; Consuelo’s dislike of; disliked by Churchill wives; involvement in Boer War; at Jennie’s third wedding; at Sunny’s wedding; at Jennie’s funeral
Wilson, Sir Arnold
Winant, John (‘Gil’); suicide of (October 1947)
Windsor Castle
Winn, Pauline (‘Popsie’)
Winterton, Lord
Woburn Abbey
Wolff, Sir Henry
Wolverton, Freddy
Women’s Land Army
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)
women’s suffrage movement
Woodstock (Oxfordshire)
working classes: in Victorian era; enfranchisement of; Conservative Party and; WSC and
Wren, Sir Christopher
York, Duchess of (Anne Hyde)*
York, Duchess of (Mary of Modena)
Yznaga, Ellen
More Praise for The Churchills
“This book is more a human story than plain history. . . . [Lovell] has done an admirable job in weaving [the Churchills’ stories] all together to create a splendid saga.”
—Country Life
“Intelligent and well-written. . . . The Churchills provides a vivid introduction to the family of English aristocrats whose nation-preserving achievements stretch from the Battle of Blenheim to the Battle of Britain and beyond.”
—Wendy Smith, Los Angeles Times
“Meticulously detailed. . . . The book is eminently readable.”
—Walter Olson, New York Times Book Review
“An absorbing good read even for folks who don’t typically indulge in history.”
— Library Journal
“Mary S. Lovell does not stint on any of the juicy details in her gossipy new chronicle, even hashing out the evidence for Lord Randolph’s affliction. . . . The Churchills: In Love and War breezes along at an undemanding pace. . . . [Lovell’s] passages on [Winston and Clementine’s] union are refreshing, even touching, and humanize the gruff warrior who lived to fight.”
—Matthew Price, Boston Sunday Globe
Copyright © 2011 by Mary S. Lovell
First American Edition 2011
Originally published in Great Britain under the title The Churchills:
A Family at the Heart of History from the Duke of Marlborough
to Winston Churchill
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First published as a Norton paperback 2012
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
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For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830
Manufacturing by RR Donnelley, Harrisonburg
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lovell, Mary S.
The Churchills : in love and war / Mary S. Lovell. — 1st American ed.
p. cm.
“Originally published in Great Britain under the title
The Churchills : a family at the heart of history from
the Duke of Marlborough to Winston Churchill”—T.p. verso.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-393-06230-4 (hardcover)
1. Churchill, Winston, 1874–1965. 2. Churchill, Winston,
1874–1965—Family. 3. Prime ministers—Great Britain—Biography.
4. Churchill family. 5. Great Britain—Biography. I. Title.
DA566.9.C5L69 2011
941.084092’2—dc22
[B]
2011002992
ISBN 978-0-393-34225-3 pbk.
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
> *Ashe House was destroyed by Parliamentary troops who left only a burned-out wing standing. John Churchill was born at Little Trill, a house belonging to his mother’s family. Later, he purchased Minterne House in Dorset (now the home of Lord and Lady Digby). He left Minterne to his son Charles Churchill. In the family they still say, ‘Charles got Minterne and poor Marlborough had to make do with Blenheim.’
†There is a legend that the family descended from Lord Courcelle, a Norman knight who came over to England with the Conqueror, but this is incorrect.
*The child was created Duke of Berwick and became one of King Louis XIV’s most famous generals.
†Commissions in regiments had to be purchased, and could be sold on retirement.
‡John’s mother, Elizabeth Drake, of the same family as Sir Francis Drake, was the granddaughter of Elizabeth Villiers and Lord Boteler.
*The value in today’s currency, based on Retail Price Index tables, is over £415,000.
†As did Sir Winston S. Churchill in his biography of his ancestor.
*Though he had no legitimate offspring Charles II had numerous bastards, the eldest of whom was James, the son of Lucy Walter. Born in 1649 while the King was in exile, James was his supposed father’s favourite. Soon after the Restoration, fourteen-year-old James was created Duke of Monmouth and married to a rich heiress. He was only twenty-one when Charles made him Captain-General of his armies. Perhaps it is not surprising, given this apparent favouritism, that when Charles II died Monmouth believed himself the true successor. With massive West Country support he proclaimed himself King and marched towards London. He got no further than Bridgwater in Somerset, where his army, mostly peasants and yeomen, was summarily defeated. Monmouth was taken, tried and executed.
*Anne was the second daughter of the Duke of York (later James II) by his first wife, Anne Hyde. The elder daughter, Mary, was married to William, Duke of Orange.
*William was a grandson of Charles I.
*King William was so unpopular that the mole was toasted all over London with the words: ‘To the little gentleman in black velvet’.
*Churchill sent a message, known as the Blenheim Dispatch, to advise Sarah of his victory. It was scribbled in pencil on the back of a tavern bill.
† Woodstock has many royal associations. Saxon, Norman and Plantagenet kings had held court at Woodstock Manor, where Henry II is supposed to have lived with his lover Rosamund Clifford (‘the fair Rosamund’, whose son by Henry was the great knight Sir William Longespée). It is said that the lovers hid in a maze when the Queen (Eleanor of Aquitaine) visited Woodstock, but she found her way to the centre of the maze by following a thread of embroidery silk that had attached itself to her husband’s spur, and Rosamund ended her days in a nunnery. The Black Prince and King Richard the Lionheart were born at Woodstock, and Queen Elizabeth I, when a princess, was imprisoned there by her sister Queen Mary (‘Bloody Mary’). Elizabeth scratched on the windowpane of her room the message: ‘Much suspected by me, Nothing proved can be, Quoth Elizabeth, prisoner’. Chaucer and his son had both known the property well. Unfortunately, the building was much damaged by Parliamentarian soldiers during the Civil War.
*Anne had eighteen pregnancies, but only one child, Prince William, lived more than a few months. He died at the age of eleven in 1700.
*In other words, she effectively replaced any 2nd Duke of Marlborough.
†Prince Frederick Louis, the hapless son of George II. Best known to history for the rhyme ‘Poor Fred, who was alive, but now is dead…’.
‡Anne, who died in 1716, was the wife of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland.
§When John Churchill, the 1st Duke, was ill towards the end of his life, even though he was then a rich man, he would walk rather than take a sedan chair in order to save a shilling. And it was said of him that he neglected to dot his i’s and cross his t’s in order to save on ink.
*Wellington famously opposed the railway infrastructure because it would affect foxhunting territories, called ‘countries’ (which it did), and because, he claimed, ‘it will encourage the lower classes to travel unnecessarily’.
*The eldest sons of the Dukes of Marlborough hold the title Marquess of Blandford, and the eldest sons of the Lords Blandford hold the title Earl of Sunderland.
*The ‘fagging’ system still exists in some public schools.
†Albertha Frances Ann, Marchioness of Blandford, was the sixth daughter of the Duke of Abercorn and his wife Louisa, daughter of the Duke of Bedford. One of fourteen children (seven boys and seven girls), all of whom married into the peerage, Berthe was part of an intricate web of aristocratic families.
*The ‘Season’ lasts from April to August, after which the action moves to Scotland for grouse shooting, and thence to houses in the shires for foxhunting during the winter. Many events of the Edwardian Season survive, including the Chelsea Flower Show, the Rose Ball, Derby Day, Trooping the Colour, tennis at Wimbledon, polo at Windsor, the Henley Regatta, croquet at Hurlingham and Royal Ascot.
*Lawrence’s son William became District Attorney of New York and stood unsuccessfully for Governor in 1906. Had he won, there was a good chance he would have been nominated by the Democrats for President in 1912 rather than Woodrow Wilson.
†A reference to the voluminous knee-length garments worn by the Dutch – the first settlers in the area. Many of those in the top echelon of mid-nineteenth-century New York traced their ancestry back to these Dutch settlers, so it was a term of pride.
‡Clara’s mother Clarissa Wilcox was the granddaughter of one Eleazor Smith of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and his wife Meribah, who was believed by their grandchildren to have been an Iroquois Indian. Clarissa died in childbirth when Clara was two years old.
*From recent research into Clara’s family tree, there seems to be no existing proof either way, but certainly Jennie, her children and her sisters and their children firmly believed that Clara was part American Indian.
†When Clara and Fanny Ronalds met at a party and everyone present held a collective breath as the wife was introduced to the mistress, Clara calmly took Fanny’s offered hand, and said: ‘I don’t blame you. I know how irresistible he is.’
*Owing to Jennie’s habit of deducting years from her age as she grew older, there has been some doubt in biographies as to her true age. There are two letters written when she was younger which give her correct age – one to her husband dated 8 January 1883, and one to her mother on 9 January 1888. Added to this there is a christening mug in the family engraved with the words: ‘Jennie Jerome 1854’. Jennie’s statement in her memoir (Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill) that she spent her early childhood in Trieste and spoke mainly Italian until the age of six, cannot be true.
*Another daughter, Camille, born between Jennie and Leonie, died of a fever in Newport when she was seven years old.
*One of Ellen’s daughters, Consuelo Yznaga, would marry Lord Mandeville, later Duke of Manchester, and Marietta’s daughter Minnie Stevens would marry a grandson of the Marquess of Anglesey who was on first-name terms with the Prince of Wales. How the mothers must have gloated when the New York Times duly carried extensive articles about these prestigious marriages.
†He once told Jennie she had the ability to attain concert standard if she continued to work hard. ‘But,’ he added with a sigh, ‘you won’t!’
*Where he found that, along with others such as John Jacob Astor III, he had been the victim of embezzlement on a grand scale. As a result he had to sell everything for what he could get in order to survive, and his second fortune all but disappeared; what he most minded losing was his major shareholding in the New York Times.
*This information came as a surprise to the author, since previous biographies describe this ball as occurring under the stars with the moon shining on the sea and a deck lit by lanterns – an impossible scenario, given the time and date.
†Under the printed words ‘To meet’ Jennie wrote in bold handwriting: ‘Rando
lph’. Randolph also kept his invitation to the ball. After his death it was found among his most treasured effects.
*In recent books about Jennie this Iroquois strain has been queried, but Anita Leslie, granddaughter of Jennie’s sister Leonie, was given this information by her mother and it is still believed within the family.
*The small size of Jennie’s hands could be judged from some of her gloves, which were on display in 2007 at the American Museum near Bath in the exhibition The Dollar Princesses.
*In his book My Early Life Sir Winston Churchill spells this name ‘Edgecumbe’.
†Now called Rosetta Cottage, the villa is owned by the National Trust and is used as a holiday rental.
*Three other sons, Frederick, Charles and Augustus, had all died in childhood.
*The Duke’s reaction mirrored exactly that of Anthony Trollope’s fictional character in the Palliser series in The Duke’s Children, written in 1879, when the Duke of Omnium’s son and heir Silverbridge fell in love with the rich daughter of visiting Americans. In this case there is no doubt that art was imitating life, for it all fell out in the novel exactly as it did in real life. Trollope even used some of the same phrases as the real-life protagonists, and his bestselling novel was published only five years after Randolph and Jennie’s courtship.
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