Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland of Holland, 4th Baron Holland of Foxley (7 May 1802 – 18 December 1859) was briefly a British Whig politician and later an ambassador.

Early life

Monument HenryFox 4thBaronHolland SanGiuseppeAChiaia Naples

Fox was born at

Holland House, London Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was an early Jacobean country house in Kensington, London, situated in a country estate that is now Holland Park. It was built in 1605 by the diplomat Sir Walter Cope. The building later passed b ...

, the eldest legitimate child of the 3rd Baron Holland and his wife, Elizabeth Vassall, and was educated at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

Career

Selections from the entertaining journal, Fox kept from 1818 to 1830 were published in 1923, edited by his cousin and eventual heir Lord Ilchester (''The Journal of the Hon. Henry Edward Fox''). In it, he records his life in British high society and his travels, his encounters with such notables as Talleyrand, Samuel Rodgers, Sydney Smith and Lord Byron (and Byron's mistress, Teresa Guiccioli, with whom Fox had an affair which he recounts in some detail). Fox briefly held the seat of

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

from 1826 to 1827 before joining the

Diplomatic Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtain diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

in 1831, after which he was Secretary to the Legation at

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

from 1832 to 1835, Attaché at

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, Secretary at the Embassy in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

from 1835 1838, to the

German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...

in 1838, and to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

from 1839 to 1846.

Marriage and progeny

On 9 May 1833, Fox married Lady Mary Augusta Coventry (11 May 1812 – 23 September 1889), a daughter of

George Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry George William Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry (16 October 1784 – 15 May 1843), styled Viscount Deerhurst from 1809 to 1831, was a British Peerage, peer and Tory Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament. Early life Coventry ...

, by whom he three children, who all died as infants:The peerage and baronetage of the british empire as at present existing arranged and printed..., 1859, p. 307.
etrieved 6 December 2014 *Stillborn son (10 October 1838). *A son (born and died 7 March 1842). *Stillborn daughter (8 August 1844).

Adopted daughter

Unable to have surviving offspring, they adopted a 3 month old girl born in France, Marie Fox, later ''Princess of Liechtenstein'', the wife of

Prince Louis of Liechtenstein Prince Aloys Franz de Paula Maria of Liechtenstein (18 November 1846 – 25 March 1920), known in English as Prince Louis, was an Austrian politician and member of the House of Liechtenstein. He was a deputy in the Austrian Imperial Council fr ...

. Her mother's name was given as

Frenchwoman French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from nor ...

Victoire Magny of

Soissons Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital ...

, but the identity of her father was unspecified. She was baptised at the Church of St. Augustine as Marie Henriette Adélaïde. When she was three months old, she was found by a

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

called Dr. Séguin, who arranged for her to be adopted by Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland, and his wife, the former Lady Mary Augusta Coventry. Lord and Lady Holland had no biological children of their own, having gone through two stillbirths and one short-lived child. Lady Holland was in her late thirties and Lord Holland insisted on adopting the girl. Her biological paternity remains a mystery; one rumour had it that she was her adoptive father's biological daughter born by his

servant A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...

. She wrote a two-volume history of Holland House, published in 1874. As Lord Holland died without male issue, in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, his titles became extinct.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Henry 1802 births 1859 deaths British diplomats Fox, Henry UK MPs 1826–1830 Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...