Anne Caulfeild, Countess of Charlemont (; 1780–1876) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

courtier. She was the first Lady of the Bedchamber appointed by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

on her accession, serving in that capacity from 1837–54. She was a daughter of William Bermingham, Esq., of Ross Hill,

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

and his wife Mary (née Ruttledge). Her sister, Mary (d. 1840), married

Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim, KP PC (Ire) (9 May 1768 – 31 December 1854), styled The Honourable from 1783 to 1795, and then Viscount Clements to 1804, was an Irish nobleman and politician. Early life Clements was born in Dublin o ...

(1768–1854) in 1800. In 1802 she married

Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont Francis William Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont KP, PC (Ire) (3 January 1775 – 26 December 1863), styled Viscount Caulfeild until 1799, was an Irish peer and politician. He was born the elder son of James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont a ...

(1775–1863) (formerly 5th

Viscount Charlemont Viscount Charlemont is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1665 for William Caulfeild, 5th Baron Charlemont. The Caulfeild family descends from Sir Toby Caulfeild, originally of Oxfordshire, England. He was a noted soldier and ...

), who was notoriously unfaithful to her.''Parallel Lives'',

Phyllis Rose Phyllis Rose (born October 26, 1942) is an American literary critic, essayist, biographer, and educator. Early life Phyllis Rose was born Phyllis Davidoff, the third child of Eli and Minnie P. Davidoff, and spent her childhood on the South Sho ...

, Vantage (New York, 1984), pg. 88. Lady Charlemont supported

Effie Gray Euphemia Chalmers Millais, Lady Millais (''née'' Gray; 7 May 1828 – 23 December 1897) was a Scottish artists' model and the wife of Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. She had previously been married to the art critic John Ruskin, ...

in the annulment of her marriage to

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in 1854.

In art

Lady Charlemont was a celebrated beauty in her time. A bust of her as a young woman by Joseph Nollekens was displayed in the corridor of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

wrote of her in his 'Letter on the Rev. W.L. Bowles's Strictures on Pope' (February 7, 1821): “But always excepting the Venus de Medicis, I differ from that opinion, at least as far as regards female beauty; for the head of Lady Charlemont (when I first saw her nine years ago) seemed to possess all that sculpture required for its ideal.”The Works of Lord Byron. Letters and Journals. Vol. II. edited by

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, 1898 A portrait of Anne as the Roman goddess Psyche, with butterfly wings and a blue silk ribbon in her hair, was painted by

François-Xavier Fabre François-Xavier Fabre (1 April 1766 – 16 March 1837) was a French painter of historical subjects. Born in Montpellier, Fabre was a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, and made his name by winning the Prix de Rome in 1787. During the French Rev ...

(1766–1837) in 1796, with a copy made by

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, wife of

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...

. It formerly hung in the library of Palazzo Gianfigliazzi in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and is now in the

Musée Fabre The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault ''département''. The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 m ...

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

. Her writings and drawings are preserved in the National Library of Ireland.

Notes

References

'Anne Caulfield Lady Charlemont' at the National Library of Ireland

The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals (see footnote 12)

Notes and Queries, 4th Series, Volume 5, Feb 5, 1870, pg 160

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages by Phyllis Rose available from Amazon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caulfield, Anne 1780 births 1876 deaths 18th-century Irish women 19th-century Irish women 19th-century Anglo-Irish people Irish countesses Ladies of the Bedchamber Women of the Regency era Women of the Victorian era Court of Queen Victoria