Cavendish Bentinck, William Henry
Average customer rating:
- Eccentric or just plain nuts?
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The Disappearing Duke: The Improbable Tale of an Eccentric English Family
Andrew Crofts , and Tom Freeman-Keel
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0786710454 |
Book Description
A true tale of fratricide, mock burials, clandestine marriages, fraud, bribery, perjury, blackmail, the financing of Benjamin Disraeli's ascent to Prime Minister, and a court case that the British aristocracy feared
Shortly after the fourth duke of Portland died in 1854, his son and heir, William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, began construction of a fantastic underground palace beneath the family's estate of Welbeck Abbey. The subterranean chambers were designed by the finest architects and engineers then working in the burgeoning Victorian Empire, featuring a vast ballroom which would be the largest unsupported structure ever built, and passages stretching out to the farthest corners of the estate that would allow the duke to travel up and out to the world undetected.
But the caverns that lay beneath the surface of Welbeck Abbey were neither as dark nor twisted as the secrets that lay behind the Cavendish-Bentinck name.
In this extraordinary work of historical detection, the authors reconstruct a century of controversy surrounding a British family of unmatched wealth and influence, culminating in one of the most bizarre and contentious cases the British courts have ever seen. At stake were the stability of the empire's social order and the secrecy its privileged classes enjoyed. In unprecedented fashion, the British papers exposed the private lives of the ruling class to feed the curiosity of the masses. The press would never be the same and one man would earn the title of the disappearing duke.
Steeped in layers of deliberately manufactured mystery, the fifth duke of Portland—unmarried and childless—became the marquess of Titchfield upon the violent death of his elder brother. In addition to suspicions of fratricide, some observers of the family, and reporters, claimed that during the duke's frequent absences from Welbeck Abbey he had forged a second identity as Thomas Druce, who owned London's Baker Street Bazaar and was the subject of countless rumors throughout high society about his secretive lifestyle. Druce allegedly died in 1864, but his burial was called a fake by skeptics who claimed that the coffin was filled with lead rather than his corpse.
When Druce's daughter-in-law reasoned that he might have survived for fifteen more years in his role as the duke, she set out to prove that her son, Sydney Druce, was the rightful heir to the dukedom. In a legal battle straight out of Alice in Wonderland—with accusations of madness, perjury, and even grave robbing—the previously unassailable aristocratic establishment, built upon centuries of tradition, threatened to topple at the drop of a gavel.
Customer Reviews:
Eccentric or just plain nuts?.......2003-03-21
The Disappearing Duke definitely falls into the "truth is stranger than fiction" category. The fifth Duke of Portland, head of an immensely powerful and rich British family apparently lived a double and perhaps triple life,leading to the most scandalous case of infighting among ostensible heirs and court case of the early 20th century in Britain.As Duke of Portland, he led a reclusive life occupied by extensive building on the estate. As his alter ego,Thomas Druce,he married twice and produced two separate families.The fighting between the groups led to madness and financial ruin for several of the family members.
This is a fascinating story,but I found the novelistic approach to the material a bit diconcerting.There was much dialogue that was apparently not supported by any sources other than the authors' imagination. That being said, it was entertaining and at least an accurate representation of the power possessed by the British aristocracy of the time.
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Lord William Bentinck: The making of a liberal imperialist, 1774-1839
John Rosselli
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0520022998 |
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Lord William Bentinck
Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1421265796
Release Date: 2002-08-20 |
Book Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1897 edition by the Clarendon Press, Oxford. Series: Rulers of India. Edited by Sir William Wilson Hunter.
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The Duke of Portland: Politics and Party in the Age of George III
David Wilkinson
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0333963857 |
Book Description
The Third Duke of Portland served twice as Prime Minster and had a long and distinguished political career from 1760s to the 1780s. This study details how he was transformed from a pillar of the grand Whiggery (he was the brother-in-law of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire) into the figurehead for would-be Tories. The book also examines how he played an important public role in many of the political crises of his era (including the French Revolution and the Union) as well as a hidden role in British history (he was involved in the secret service and political corruption).
British Prime Ministers:
- Cavendish, William
- Churchill, Winston
- Compton, Spencer
- Disraeli, Benjamin
- Eden, Sir Anthony
- Fitzroy, Augustus Henry
- Gladstone, William Ewart
- Gordon, George Hamilton
- Grenville, George
- Grenville, William Wyndham
British Prime Ministers
British Prime Ministers