9 minute read
DARLING OF GEORGIAN SOCIETY
© CHRISTOPHER ISON/ENGLISH HERITAGE TRUST/JONATHAN BAILEY/HISTORIC ENGLAND 1992
The darling of Georgian society
As her former home reopens following major restoration work, we tell the story of Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, who defied the odds to become one of the most influential women in Georgian Britain
Avision in white on the banks of the River Thames, Marble Hill is one of the last remaining Palladian villas of its ilk and gives some clue to the status of its original owner, Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, who lived here in some capacity from the 1720s until her death in 1767.
To look at the elegant villa, all classical design, and set amid 66 acres of Arcadian riverside parkland in Twickenham, west London, you might be forgiven for thinking Henrietta lived a privileged life, but any privilege she enjoyed was hard won.
If you were to listen to the rumours, then you might dismiss Henrietta Howard as little more than mistress to the king, who used her skills of seduction to rise through the ranks, but that would do her a serious injustice and underplay the restrictions and pressures placed on women of her time.
Reopening earlier this year following major restoration work by English Heritage, a new interpretation at Marble Hill hopes to reframe Henrietta’s story to show that she was far more than simply the king’s mistress. The house explores Henrietta’s abusive first marriage, the role deafness and poor health played in her life, and her rise through the ranks of Georgian society by captivating some of the most well-connected people of the time.
Though born into a respectable and titled family – the Hobarts of Blickling Hall – following the death of her father in a duel when she was just eight years old, and the death of her mother four years later, Henrietta found herself an orphan aged just 12.
Facing mounting debts, she agreed to marry Charles Howard, a nobleman, in 1706 to secure her future.
However, the marriage was not good: Charles was reportedly an ill-tempered and violent husband who squandered what little money the couple had. One contemporary of theirs wrote: “Thus they loved, thus they married, and thus they hated each other for the rest of their lives.”
However, having dug herself out of debt once, Henrietta was not about to give up now.
She managed to raise enough funds to travel with her husband to the Hanoverian court to petition them to give her a role when they inevitably inherited the throne.
Her plan worked and in 1714 when the Elector of
Previous page, left to right: Marble Hill; Portrait of Henrietta Howard, 9th Countess of Su olk, by Charles Jervas This page, clockwise from top left: The entrance hall at Marble Hill; the great room; Henrietta’s bed chamber
Left: The dining room at Marble Hill Above: George II as Prince of Wales by Johann Leonhard Hirschmann Below: Henrietta’s correspondence room at Marble Hill Hanover came to the British throne as King George I, he made Charles his Groom of the Bedchamber, while Henrietta was made Woman of the Bedchamber to Caroline of Ansbach, wife of his son, the Prince of Wales, therefore ensuring a certain amount of financial security. Shortly after this, Henrietta became mistress to the Prince of Wales, (later King George II), though it is not known whether this role was one of choice or a condition of the job.
Being a royal mistress did not come without its sacrifices. Though Henrietta probably shed few tears about being parted from her husband when she moved with the Prince’s Court from St James’s Palace to Hampton Court, it was also the last time she would ever see her only son, Henry.
In 1724 Henrietta bought land on the Thames riverside in Twickenham and work to build Marble Hill began.
The purchase of the land and building of the house was made possible by a gift from the prince in 1723 of money, furniture, mahogany, jewels and more, which was kept in trust and far away from the hands of her husband, with whom it is believed the prince made a settlement.
In 1727 the Prince of Wales became King George II and in 1728 Henrietta and Charles legally separated, although they avoided the scandal of divorce, therefore when Charles succeeded to the Earldom in 1731, Henrietta was allowed to use the title of Countess of Suffolk.
In 1733 Charles died, leaving Henrietta a widow, and, by 1734, Henrietta’s relationship with the king had come to an end. With her high status as Countess of Suffolk, she was able to retire from the royal court. Now well into her forties, she was free for the first time in her life.
In 1735, Henrietta married for a second time, to the politician George Berkeley, and this time it was a love marriage, as evidenced by letters between the pair.
The couple travelled together and extended parts of Marble Hill, which by now had become a playground for London’s cultural and political elite, known as the ‘Twickenham Set’, to escape to. Considered handsome, witty, and intelligent, Henrietta had befriended many influential people of the day, including Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope.
In 1735, Pope, who several years earlier had made a
significant contribution to the landscape of Marble Hill’s gardens, with the royal gardener Charles Bridgeman, wrote to a friend: “There is a greater court now at Marble Hill than at Kensington, and God knows when it will end.”
Sadly, George Berkeley died in 1746, but, by this point, Henrietta had become a darling of Georgian society.
Many letters of the time describe her wisdom and good taste. She was an avid patron of the arts and architecture, as visitors to the newly restored Marble Hill will attest.
Following a major restoration project, funded by £3 million investment from English Heritage and a £5 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund, visitors will be able to see the famous pleasure garden, which has been recreated to show the vistas that Henrietta and her circle would have enjoyed. The ninepin bowling alley has also been restored, as has the 18th-century garden grotto.
Inside, the paint scheme used during Henrietta’s time has been reinstated in many of the rooms, including the great room, where visitors can admire an eight-leaf Chinese laquer screen, which bears Henrietta’s coat of arms. Henrietta’s bedchamber has been redecorated in green damask and a portrait of her by Charles Jervas hangs in the entrance hall.
In 1760, King George II died and with him went the pension that had largely funded Henrietta’s lifestyle. Nevertheless, she stayed on at Marble Hill, where she became guardian to her great-niece Henrietta Hotham in 1761.
Her later years were marked with increasingly bad health – Henrietta’s poor hearing was said to have aided her relationship with the king as she was one of the few who could listen to (or at least appear to) his ramblings – and she died at Marble Hill in 1767.
On hearing of her death, Horace Walpole, who lived nearby at Strawberry Hill, and had become a close friend, wrote in a letter: “I never knew a woman more respectable for her honour and principles and have lost few persons in my life whom I shall miss so much.”
Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s chief executive, says: “English Heritage’s restoration of Marble Hill will not only do justice to the house and gardens but to its owner, the remarkable Henrietta Howard.” A remarkable woman indeed. n Marble Hill is open from Wednesdays to Sundays from April to October and is free to enter. english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/marble-hill-house
Above, top to bottom: Marble Hill is surrounded by beautiful woodland quarters, which have been restored for this year’s reopening; politician and writer Horace Walpole was one of Henrietta’s close friends
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