The Duchess: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Amanda Foreman

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Gritten, David (16 August 2008). "On-set report: The Duchess" The Daily Telegraph Retrieved 8 April 2020. Foreman, Amanda (30 August 2015). "Women's equality dream comes true – 8,000 years ago". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015 . Retrieved 15 January 2016. As was common among the aristocracy of her time, Georgiana routinely gambled for leisure and amusement. However, her gaming spiraled into a ruinous addiction made worse by her emotional instability. Foreman, Amanda (15 August 2015). "PORTER Magazine: The Lady of the House" . Retrieved 15 January 2016– via Nancy Pelosi: Democratic Leader. To play her character, the lead actress Keira Knightley was given access to the Duchess’s personal effects and the opportunity to speak to her descendants. “When we were filming in Chatsworth, the current Duchess of Devonshire showed me letters, jewellery and paintings, and all the notes from Georgiana’s creditors, which showed how deeply in debt she was. She died terrified that her husband would discover the extent of her debts, because she was convinced he would divorce her or dismiss her. It’s quite tragic,” the actress explained. “There was something very sad about this woman, I think she was a victim of herself, of her own innocence. She was also a victim of those who used her for their own gain, while knowing how to wield some power at a time when women had very little.” Lady Diana is a descendant of the Duchess of Devonshire

The Duke had barely known his mother, Lady Charlotte Boyle, who died when he was six. The fourth Duke had married her against his own mother’s wishes. There was no clear reason for the Duchess’s objection – she called it ‘an accursed match’ – particularly since Lade Charlotte brought a vast fortune to the family, her father, the Earl of Burlington, having no heir. But the Duchess would have nothing more to do with her son; when he died ten years later she made no attempt to see her grandchildren. The fifth Duke, his two brothers Lords Richard and George, and sister Lady Dorothy, were brought up in cold splendour in the care of their Cavendish uncles. a b "2008 Fall Movie Guide: Preview: The Duchess". Entertainment Weekly. No.1007/1008. 22–29 August 2008. p.50 . Retrieved 2 October 2008. Film Winners in 2009". British Academy Film Awards. Archived from the original on 17 January 2009 . Retrieved 8 February 2009. He was born in 1949, the second of three surviving sons of the Whig politician Henry Fox, first Baron Holland, and Lady Caroline Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond. Although an unscrupulous and – even for the age – corrupt politician, Lord Holland was a tender husband and an indulgent father who shamelessly spoilt his children. No eighteenth-century upbringing has received more attention or encountered such criticism as Fox’s. By contemporary social standards the Holland household was a kind of freak show. There were stories of Fox casually burning his father’s carefully prepared speeches, smashing his gold watch to see how it would look broken, disrupting his dinners – and never being punished.a b c Cooper, Michael P. (2005). "The Devonshire Mineral Collection of Chatworth House: An 18th Century Survivor and Its Restoration". Mineralogical Record. v36:3: 239–272. ProQuest 211718664– via ProQuest. Regarding lead actress Keira Knightley, director Saul Dibb said The Duchess was "a chance to take a character from late childhood– she's married at 17– into full adulthood, 10 years later." [4] It was also a chance for Knightley to work with Ralph Fiennes, whom she regarded as one of her most accomplished co-stars to date; Dibb said, "When I said, 'We've got Ralph interested in playing the Duke,' we both took a gulp and went, 'F---.' [ sic] ... But I didn't for one second feel that she wasn't up to the task." [4] Originally, the film was to be directed by Susanne Bier. [5] Release [ edit ] Marketing [ edit ] The film advertisements which featured Diana, Princess of Wales were criticised by Knightley and Amanda Foreman, the author of the film's source material. [6] Judges announced". The Man Booker Prize. 14 December 2015 . Retrieved 15 January 2016. [ permanent dead link] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that "Dibb's movie looks good" but complained the film was "exasperatingly bland and slow-moving at all times" handing out a 2 of 5-star rating. However, Paul Hurley gave the film 8/10 and called The Duchess "an excellent new film" and states that " The Duchess stands a good chance of taking home some very big prizes at the end of the year". [17]

Ralph Fiennes, the star of Schindler’s List and The English Patient explains why his character, The Duke of Devonshire, is misunderstood and why he’s definitely not based upon Prince Charles. Georgiana's children were discontented with the marriage as they never liked Lady Elizabeth at all (something that caused dismay with their mother when she was alive). When William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, died on 29 July 1811, the Marquess of Hartington became 6th Duke of Devonshire. He sought to liquidate his late mother's entire debts. Meanwhile, Lady Elizabeth fought to keep the Cavendish properties to which she wasn't entitled; the 6th Duke denied her demand that her illegitimate son, Clifford, bear the Cavendish crest along with the 5th Duke of Devonshire. Infuriated, Lady Elizabeth brought up her affair with the 5th Duke of Devonshire by publicly announcing that he had sired her illegitimate children. The 6th Duke of Devonshire finally made an end to it all by paying off Lady Elizabeth and getting rid of her. Nevertheless, Georgiana's children had mutually positive relations with Lady Elizabeth Foster's children for the rest of their lives, having grown up together. [6] Biography at its best . . . seamlessly merges a life and its times, capturing not just an individual but an age. In 2011 Foreman published A World on Fire, a history of Anglo-American relations during the Civil War. It was the winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award for Civil War History, runner-up for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman History Prize, and a finalist for the Lincoln Prize, the Lionel Gelber Prize, the Jefferson Davis Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book was named one of the “Ten Best Books of 2011” by The New York Times, and dozens of other publications including The New Yorker and The Economist. She has contributed essays to numerous books including City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts , What Might have Been, Reconfiguring the Union: Civil War Transformations, Gender in Eighteenth-Century England , and The New York Times’ Disunion. Some Old Time Beauties by Thomson Willing Featuring a different version of her picture as well as written material on her reputation.

Lady Spencer, played by Charlotte Rampling

The Civil War as Global Conflict: Transnational Meanings of the American Civil War edited by David T. Gleeson and Simon Lewis Brad Pitt And Keira Knightley Among Big Names Confirmed For T.O. Film Fest". CityNews Toronto. 19 August 2008 . Retrieved 30 September 2017. In the third essay of the series, Amanda Foreman, author of the bestselling biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and the American Civil War history A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided, explores her personal feelings about the historian’s role. The New York Times' Disunion: Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln's Election to the Emancipation Proclamation edited by Ted Widmer