Wedlock
How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match
The richest heiress in Britain was conned into marriage by a staged duel, and then had to invent a way out.
Mary Eleanor Bowes was the richest heiress in Britain and an ancestor of Elizabeth II. Widowed at twenty-seven, she was tricked into a second marriage by a man who staged a duel and a deathbed to secure her, then spent years imprisoning and beating her. Moore tells how she escaped and won a divorce that Georgian law barely allowed, and the trial records make the book as much legal history as biography.
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Nancy Goldstone
Interestingly, Mary did not exhibit a particularly strong character when she was younger. She had been spoiled by her parents and was only interested in parties and dresses. She was unhappy with her first marriage because her husband was older, cold and distant. She was 27 when he died.
Interview · March 2012
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