Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Lytton, (née Villiers; 15 September 1841 – 17 September 1936) was a British aristocrat. As the wife of

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, (8 November 183124 November 1891) was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. He served as Viceroy of India between 1876 and 1880durin ...

, she was

vicereine of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

. After his death, she was a court-attendant of

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 her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

. Her children included suffragette Constance Bulwer-Lytton.

Life

Edith Villiers was born on 15 September 1841, into the

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

Villiers family Villiers ( ) is an aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. Over time, various members of the Villiers family were made knights, baronets, and peers. Peerages held by the Villiers family include the dukedoms of Buckingham (1623–1687) and Cleve ...

. She was the daughter of Edward Ernest Villiers (1806–1843) and Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell. She was the granddaughter of George Villiers, and the niece of

George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, (12 January 180027 June 1870) was an English diplomat and statesman from the Villiers family. He served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs three times as part of a distinguishe ...

. The

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

portrait of her by

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical work ...

was painted when she was 21. She was by then the only unmarried daughter as her twin sister Elizabeth had married Henry Loch, 1st Baron Loch in 1862. (There is a tale that Henry proposed to the wrong girl by mistake and then refused to admit it.) Edith was living with her widowed mother at the home of her uncle, the Earl of Clarendon. She had been trained in dancing, music and art, but she had not received a structured education. Villiers married Robert Bulwer-Lytton (later 1st

Earl of Lytton Earl of Lytton, in the County of Derby, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1880 for the diplomat and poet Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Baron Lytton. He was Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880 and British Ambassad ...

) on 4 October 1864. She brought her new husband an income of £6,000 per year. Robert, an aspiring diplomat, was relatively poor for a member of the British upper classes, although his father Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a well-known writer and was raised to the peerage in 1866. His father controlled his son and it was his choice for his son to become a diplomat. Having previously broken up a match between Robert and another girl, he also disapproved of the marriage to Edith. For the first year he refused to speak to her but eventually warmed to the marriage. Edith accompanied her husband during his diplomatic career, and several of their children were born abroad. The children were: * Edward Rowland John Bulwer-Lytton (1865–1871) * Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton (12 June 1867 – 28 March 1942) who married

Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, PC (9 April 1853 – 14 January 1945), known as Gerald Balfour or The Rt Hon. G. W. Balfour until 1930, was a senior British Conservative politician who became a peer on the death of his brother, for ...

* Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton, born at Vienna (1869–1923), British suffragette activist. * Hon. Henry Meredith Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1872–1874) * Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964) who married the architect Edwin Lutyens. *

Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton Victor Alexander George Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, (9 August 1876 – 25 October 1947), styled Viscount Knebworth from 1880 to 1891, was a British politician and colonial administrator. He served as Governor of Bengal between 192 ...

, (1876–1947) *

Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton Neville Stephen Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton, OBE (6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951) was a British military officer, Olympian and artist. Early life Neville Lytton was born in British India on 6 February 1879 while his parents ...

(6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951)

Vicereine of India

Edith Bulwer-Lytton (née Villiers), Countess of Lytton

Her husband served as

Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

between 1876 and 1880. Edith was thus

Vicereine A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

.Vicereine
Definition by OxfordDictionaries, Retrieved 3 November 2015 In 1876 she gave birth at

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, the ...

to her son Victor. He was the third of her sons but Edward and Henry had died as infants in 1871 and 1874. Victor and her last child Neville who was born in 1879 would in time inherit the Earldom. The Delhi Durbar of 1877 was held beginning on 1 January 1877 to proclaim Queen Victoria as

Empress of India Emperor or Empress of India was a title used by British monarchs from 1 May 1876 (with the Royal Titles Act 1876) to 22 June 1948, that was used to signify their rule over British India, as its imperial head of state. Royal Proclamation of 2 ...

. The following year Edith, as Vicereine, was invested in the

Imperial Order of the Crown of India The Imperial Order of the Crown of India is an order in the British honours system. The Order was established by Queen Victoria when she became Empress of India in 1878. The Order was open only to women, and no appointments have been made since t ...

. Edith was also decorated with the honorific Lady, Royal Order of Victoria and Albert. Edith and her daughters restyled the court which they considered inferior to the courts of Europe. Fashions were ordered from Paris. Edith was noted for her support of the education of women in India. Her daughter Emily retained an interest in Indian culture after the family's return to England and was converted to

theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion ...

. When Edith's husband resigned in 1880 he was made an Earl by Benjamin Disraeli.

Paris

Lady-edith-villiers-as-lady-melbourne-after-cosway-page-60

Edith's husband became the British Ambassador in Paris in 1887 although he was weakened by heart disease. He seemed to make a good impression as when he died suddenly in Paris in 1891 he was given, unusually, a state funeral in France. Edith was the chief mourner along with her surviving five children. The funeral was attended by ministers of state and the French government arranged for 3,500 soldiers to serve at the funeral, before his body was taken by rail to England.Obituaries of Lord Lytton
Lucille Project, Retrieved 3 November 2015

At court

Edith had a much reduced income. She became Queen Victoria's Lady-in-Waiting (

Lady of the Bedchamber Lady of the Bedchamber is the title of a lady-in-waiting holding the official position of personal attendant on a British queen regnant or queen consort. The position is traditionally held by the wife of a peer. They are ranked between the Mis ...

) in 1895 taking the post left vacant by Susanna, Duchess of Roxburghe. She was asked personally by the Queen and she received £300 per year and served with eight other aristocratic maids of honour. In 1897, she was one of the guests at the Duchess of Devonshire's Diamond Jubilee Costume Ball on 2 July 1897. When the Queen died, Edith rode with the body on the funeral journey from London to Windsor.Votes for Women By June Purvis, Sandra Stanley Holton
/ref> She then held the office of "Lady of the Bedchamber" to

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 t ...

until she retired in 1905.

Retirement

Her retirement lasted more than thirty years. She lived at Homewood, a

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family ...

on the family estate at

Knebworth Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden ...

, Hertfordshire. The house was designed c. 1901 by her son-in-law Sir Edwin Lutyens, in Arts and Crafts style. Her daughter Constance suffered a stroke in 1912 and returned to live at Homewood, remaining there until shortly before her death in 1923.

Bibliography

Her granddaughter

Mary Lutyens Edith Penelope Mary Lutyens (pseudonym ''Esther Wyndham''; 31 July 1908 – 9 April 1999) was a British author who is principally known for her biographical works on the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. Early life Mary Lutyens was born in L ...

published a book ''Lady Lytton's Court Diary'', based on Edith's experiences at the court of Queen Victoria. Mary's other publications include ''The Lyttons in India: An account of Lord Lytton's Viceroyalty, 1876–1880''.London: John Murray, 1979, Another granddaughter,

Elisabeth Lutyens Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (9 July 190614 April 1983) was an English composer. Early life and education Elisabeth Lutyens was born in London on 9 July 1906. She was one of the five children of Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964), a me ...

, mentioned Edith's life at Homewood when recalling her own childhood in her autobiography ''A Goldfish Bowl'' (1972).

Legacy

Edith and Robert had five children, who led influential lives. She also sat for the noted painting by George Frederic Watts. Some have deprecated her contribution as she had no formal education and her husband's biographers have thought her lightweight.

References

External links

Edith Bulwer-Lytton

ODNB The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

(subscription or UK public library membership required) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lytton, Edith Bulwer-Lytton, Countess of Companions of the Order of the Crown of India Ladies of the Bedchamber Ladies of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert Burials at Knebworth 1841 births 1936 deaths Women of the Victorian era 20th-century British women People from Knebworth

Edith Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and var ...

Viceregal consorts of India British countesses Court of Queen Victoria Wives of knights