Consuelo Vanderbilt
Consuelo Vanderbilt ( born March 2, 1877 in New York City; † December 6, 1964 in Southampton, New York ) was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family and by marriage Lady Spencer - Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
Life
Consuelo was the daughter of railroad tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt (1849-1920) and his first wife Alva Erskine Smith (1853-1933) was born in New York City. She had two younger brothers, William Kissam and Harold Stirling. Your unusual name she got through her godmother Lady María Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester ( 1858-1909 ). Her childhood revolved around perfect behavior and the social representation. She was taught entirely at home by governesses and tutors with the help of her father's library. In addition to geography, history, mathematics, art, dance and music Consuelo also learned French, German and Italian. In her later life she fought against this type of education and social constraint.
The banquets, dance balls, garden parties, dinners, dances and costume celebrations of the American plutocracy were famous and filled the society columns of the newspapers. But all desire goal was participation in the social life of the British aristocracy. Along with her childhood friend Mary Victoria Head (1870-1906), later Baroness Curzon of Kedleston, Consuelo was introduced in 1894 in the New York society; and a few weeks later in London society. Her parents dedicated Lady Mary Paget, an American-born, as corporate and matchmaker for her daughter Consuelo. In no time they had some potential marriage candidates, including Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, and the German -born Prince Franz Joseph of Battenberg found. The choice of her mother Alva fell to the Duke of Marlborough.
On November 6, 1895 Consuelo Vanderbilt married at Saint Thomas Church in New York City Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough ( 1871-1934 ), eldest son of George Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke of Marlborough, and his first wife Lady Albertha Frances Anne Hamilton. The honeymoon spent the young couple on the summer residence of their parents Marble House in Newport, Rhode Iceland. From the marriage, which by all accounts was unhappy, walked two sons forth:
- John Albert Edward William, 10th Duke of Marlborough ( 1897-1972 )
- Ivor Charles Edward (1898-1956), Lord Spencer - Churchill ∞ 1947 Lady Elizabeth Cunningham
With her dowry was her husband Blenheim Palace, the ancestral castle of the Dukes of Marlborough renovate and complete the partially sold in the 19th century on. In addition, he was create by the landscape gardener Achille Duchene the famous water gardens of the palace. The dowry of the bride was 20 million U.S. dollars ( about four billion today ) and a block of shares in U.S. railway company New York Central Railroad.
During her marriage to Lady Spencer-Churchill engaged in several charitable organizations; a big concern lay in the education and health sector. In addition to the social obligations Lady Consuelo belonged to the circle of friends of the Prince of Wales and later King George V and his wife Princess Mary of Teck. A close relationship she had with her husband's cousin, Reginald Fellowes Ailwyn and later Prime Minister Winston Churchill; it was she who permitted the marriage of Reginald with French Marguerite Séverine Philippine Decazes de Glücksbierg against the family. Your own marriage failed and the couple lived separately since 1906. After the years of love affair between her husband and the American Gladys Marie Deacon, an eccentric personality, became public, she filed for divorce in 1921; on 19 August 1926, the marriage was also by Pope Pius XI. canceled.
On July 4, 1921 Lady Consuelo married in Paris Lieutenant Colonel Louis -Jacques Balsan ( 1869-1956 ), the eldest son of a Parisian industrialist. My brother-in Etienne Balsan (1880-1953) was the lover and promoter of the later famous fashion designer Coco Chanel. Consuelo Balsan entertained despite the divorce continued contact with the family members of her ex-husband, especially to Winston Churchill. This was a regular visitor to the Château St. George Motel in Lima in the 1920s and 1930s. After the death of her second husband, she returned to the United States and lived until her death in Southampton. She was next to her son Ivor and her husband in the cemetery in Bladon, Oxfordshire, buried.