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 1831 – 24 November 1891), was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. During his tenure as Viceroy of India between 1876 ...
, she was
vicereine of India
The governor-general of India (1833 to 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 in their capacity as the emperor o ...
. 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 Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
. 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 power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats.
Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...
Villiers family
Villiers ( ) is an Nobility, 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 Duke of Buckingham, Bucki ...
. 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. The ]Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), 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, ...
portrait of her by George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as ''Hope (Watts), Hop ...
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
Henry Brougham Loch, 1st Baron Loch, (23 May 1827 – 20 June 1900) was a British people, British soldier and colonial administrator.
Military service
Henry Loch was the son of James Loch, Member of Parliament, of Drylaw, Midlothian. He enter ...
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 Ambassado ...
) 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
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (; 25 May 1803 – 18 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secr ...
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, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (9 April 1853 – 14 January 1945), known as Gerald Balfour or The Rt Hon. G. W. Balfour until 1930, was a senior Conservative Party (UK), British Conse ...
* 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
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...
.
* 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 List of governors of Bengal Pres ...
, (1876–1947)[
* Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton (6 February 1879 – 9 February 1951)][
]
Vicereine of India
Her husband served as Viceroy of India
The governor-general of India (1833 to 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 in their capacity as the Emperor of ...
between 1876 and 1880.[ Edith was thus Vicereine.][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 the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...
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
The Delhi Durbar ( lit. "Court of Delhi") was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by Britain at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was he ...
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 Royal Proclamation of 22 June 1948, made in accordance with thIndian Independence Act 1947, 10 & 11 GEO. 6. C ...
. 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 ...
. 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 religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
. When Edith's husband resigned in 1880 he was made an Earl by Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a ...
.[
]
Paris
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
A lady-in-waiting (alternatively written lady in waiting) or court lady is a female personal assistant at a Royal court, court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking nobility, noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was o ...
(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. A lady of the bedchamber would gi ...
) 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](_blank)
/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-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...
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, Welsh or Irish estate (house), estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house fr ...
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 Wald ...
, Hertfordshire. The house was designed circa 1901 by her son-in-law Sir Edwin Lutyens, in Arts and Crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
style. Her daughter Constance suffered a stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
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 ...
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 word , meaning ''wealth'' or ''prosperity'', in combination with the Old English , meaning ''wiktionary:strife, strife'', and is in common usage in this form in English language, Englis ...
Viceregal consorts of India
British countesses
Court of Queen Victoria
Wives of knights
19th-century British women