The Viceroy's Daughters
Mar. 12th, 2012 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessIn my ongoing obsession with biographies of the rich and overly entitled and privileged, I naturally had to pick up The Viceroy's Daughters, the saga of Irene, Cynthia (Cim), and Alexandra (Baba), the daughters of Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1898 to 1905. (Curzon is perhaps best known to most of you now as one of the British diplomats most responsible for British involvement in the Great Game, where Russia and Great Britain vied for supremacy in central Asia and the Middle East, and a creator of British policy in the Middle East. As such he is not regarded with universal popularity these days.)
And once again, I learned a surprising, almost shocking fact: people who hang out with, sleep with, or become otherwise obsessed or involved with Nazis and Nazi sympathizers? Turn out to be just awful, awful, people, on so many levels.
I know.. I'll just pause to let that stunning revelation sink in, shall I?
The three sisters not only came from fairly solid aristocratic stock (although their father began as the mere son of a baron – only an Honorable – and if you don't find this important, you are completely missing everything that the people in this book found important – before becoming an Earl and then a Marquis in gratitude to his services for the country) but were also the daughters of a very wealthy American heiress, something that became a problem for the two oldest daughters when their father began to use their inheritance to pay for the maintenance of four great houses, since in his opinion the family honor and his role as viceroy depended on such things. Imagine paying for four Downton Abbeys, and you have an idea of the extent of the money involved. Their mother, who had adored Curzon, died relatively young, and Curzon took up with occasional mistresses before marrying again to a woman called Gracie, who liked to spend a lot of money and sleep around.
Which is pretty much like virtually everyone in this book, actually. The three sisters became, more or less, members of the Cliveden Set, which in turn brought them to the attention of many fabulous and wealthy people, many of whom Irene and Baba ended up sleeping with. The second sister, Cim, managed to remain faithful to her husband (it's unusual in this book) but her husband, Oswald "Tom" Mosley, an admirer of Hitler who attempted to create fascism in England, more than made up for that by sleeping with virtually every woman he came across, including Cim's stepmother, Gracie, her older sister Irene (although that was just a drunken fling), and her younger sister, Baba – this a long term, passionate romance that neither seemed able to break – before meeting, sleeping with and eventually marrying Diana Mitford, of the Mitford sisters, before deciding to, you know, sleep around some more. In between the fascism. Only getting tossed into jail by the British government during World War II on suspicion of Nazi collaboration slowed him down.
The oldest sister, Irene, never married, although she had various affairs and marriage proposals. She comes across as one of the nicer, if perpetually drunk, people of the book: she had a general concern for her nieces and nephews and often was the person to care for them; involved herself in extensive charity work; and unlike her sisters voiced doubts about the Nazi regime and continued to invite Jewish acquaintances to parties and other events. She also helped turn Tom Mosley into authorities, convinced (along with Diana's sister, the novelist Nancy Mitford) that Tom Mosley was a danger to British society and the government during the war. She had personal reasons for this (Tom was just awful), but she was also, given that Tom and Diana were married with Hitler as a sole witness, and given that Tom used Baba to convey messages from Hitler to various members of Mussolini's government, she had a point.
Baba did marry, to a relatively impoverished and not particularly intelligent Irishman named, improbably enough, Fruity Metcalfe, whose sole distinction was that he'd managed to earn the friendship of the Prince of Wales, afterwards the Duke of Windsor. The problem with this, and it's a significant one, is that this means that the book ends up spending significant time talking about the Windsors. Ugh.
Thing is, every time I learn something new about the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, I end up liking them even less. Even in this book, which is all about aristocrats, fascists and semi-fascists, they come off as the single most filled with a sense of entitlement people in the whole book. (You know it's a problem when Hitler comes off as comparatively modest.) One particularly revolting section happens just before their wedding, as the Duke runs up enormous phone and mail bills without paying for them, demands eight daily newspapers, also without paying for them, zips off to various restaurants and – yes, expects others to pay for him – lies to his brother about the extent of his personal fortune and tops all of this off by whining because, oooh, like, oh my god, Wallis isn't going to get to be called "Her Royal Highness" after they get married! She can only be called "Her Grace." It's LIKE THE WORST INSULT EVER PEOPLE AND HE WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIS FAMILY.
(Wikipedia does confirm that this was a Very Big Deal at the time, but in this book, it's just irritating, and puts any other sense of entitlement you may encounter, including mine (which, let's face it, is occasionally strong) into perspective. The only good thing about the entire incident is that the guy they were sponging off of before their wedding? The same guy that Baba said was charming? Later worked for the Nazis, so I feel a bit better that the Duke of Windsor took advantage of him here. But still.)
In a later bit, Fruity goes to the Windsors to inform them that a plane is arriving to take them from France.
Windsors, loftily: We refuse to leave France and go to England unless we have a formal invitation from the king and a welcome to Windsor Castle. Also, a proper yacht, because flying is so, you know, not us.
Fruity: THE GERMANS ARE INVADING.
Windsors: ...And?
Fruity: AND THEY ARE KILLING PEOPLE.
Windsors: ...And?
Fruity: AND IF YOU DON'T LET THE PLANE COME, YOUR STAFF CAN'T LEAVE, AND WILL GET SHOT.
Windsors: We really can't see how this justifies not using the yacht. So rude! And have you forgotten, they are still calling the Duchess "Your Grace"?
That sort of thing. Those of you with an objection to offensive, racist language will also want to jump over the various things the Duchess of Windsor said while in the Bahamas.
Sidenote: The one public figure my grandmothers both agreed on, completely, was the Duchess of Windsor and that she was just an AWFUL woman. For awhile I was under the mistaken impression that this was thanks to the Duchess' two divorces, which seemed odd coming from the divorced grandmother. I was wrong: the Duchess of Windsor was just an AWFUL woman. AWFUL. But at least, thanks to her, the Duke of Windsor was not king during World War II. So at least she contributed something to life. And the Miami economy where she did a lot of shopping. And I mean a lot. While other people were rationing everything in World War II. And often with other people's money. One of my grandmothers said this was still chatted about with disapproval in Miami all the way through the 1970s.
I blame the Windsors for Baba's decision to have several completely adulterous affairs after her marriage, however much they distressed her husband. This is partly because, as I said, the Windsors are annoying, but it's not a completely unjustified conclusion – while still heir to the throne, the Duke of Windsor continually promised that Fruity would get a high paying court position, which never materialized, mostly leaving poor Fruity financially dependent on his wife, and unable to object too strongly to many of her doings. Which included sleeping around, a lot, with various people, including her brother-in-law Tom Mosley, before and after his marriage to Diana. This is the gossipy and fun part of the book.
The book rather abruptly runs out of steam after World War II, although both Irene and Baba survived the war and continued to do political and charity work for many years after this. I suspect that this is partly because both of them stopped sleeping around quite as much, giving less amusing scandal to talk about, and partly because many of the people they interacted with after World War II are still very much alive. But up until that point, it's a fun, gossipy sort of read. If, that is, you can handle hearing about the Windsors and Tom Mosley and numerous other near fascists, and I can't blame you if you can't.
And once again, I learned a surprising, almost shocking fact: people who hang out with, sleep with, or become otherwise obsessed or involved with Nazis and Nazi sympathizers? Turn out to be just awful, awful, people, on so many levels.
I know.. I'll just pause to let that stunning revelation sink in, shall I?
The three sisters not only came from fairly solid aristocratic stock (although their father began as the mere son of a baron – only an Honorable – and if you don't find this important, you are completely missing everything that the people in this book found important – before becoming an Earl and then a Marquis in gratitude to his services for the country) but were also the daughters of a very wealthy American heiress, something that became a problem for the two oldest daughters when their father began to use their inheritance to pay for the maintenance of four great houses, since in his opinion the family honor and his role as viceroy depended on such things. Imagine paying for four Downton Abbeys, and you have an idea of the extent of the money involved. Their mother, who had adored Curzon, died relatively young, and Curzon took up with occasional mistresses before marrying again to a woman called Gracie, who liked to spend a lot of money and sleep around.
Which is pretty much like virtually everyone in this book, actually. The three sisters became, more or less, members of the Cliveden Set, which in turn brought them to the attention of many fabulous and wealthy people, many of whom Irene and Baba ended up sleeping with. The second sister, Cim, managed to remain faithful to her husband (it's unusual in this book) but her husband, Oswald "Tom" Mosley, an admirer of Hitler who attempted to create fascism in England, more than made up for that by sleeping with virtually every woman he came across, including Cim's stepmother, Gracie, her older sister Irene (although that was just a drunken fling), and her younger sister, Baba – this a long term, passionate romance that neither seemed able to break – before meeting, sleeping with and eventually marrying Diana Mitford, of the Mitford sisters, before deciding to, you know, sleep around some more. In between the fascism. Only getting tossed into jail by the British government during World War II on suspicion of Nazi collaboration slowed him down.
The oldest sister, Irene, never married, although she had various affairs and marriage proposals. She comes across as one of the nicer, if perpetually drunk, people of the book: she had a general concern for her nieces and nephews and often was the person to care for them; involved herself in extensive charity work; and unlike her sisters voiced doubts about the Nazi regime and continued to invite Jewish acquaintances to parties and other events. She also helped turn Tom Mosley into authorities, convinced (along with Diana's sister, the novelist Nancy Mitford) that Tom Mosley was a danger to British society and the government during the war. She had personal reasons for this (Tom was just awful), but she was also, given that Tom and Diana were married with Hitler as a sole witness, and given that Tom used Baba to convey messages from Hitler to various members of Mussolini's government, she had a point.
Baba did marry, to a relatively impoverished and not particularly intelligent Irishman named, improbably enough, Fruity Metcalfe, whose sole distinction was that he'd managed to earn the friendship of the Prince of Wales, afterwards the Duke of Windsor. The problem with this, and it's a significant one, is that this means that the book ends up spending significant time talking about the Windsors. Ugh.
Thing is, every time I learn something new about the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, I end up liking them even less. Even in this book, which is all about aristocrats, fascists and semi-fascists, they come off as the single most filled with a sense of entitlement people in the whole book. (You know it's a problem when Hitler comes off as comparatively modest.) One particularly revolting section happens just before their wedding, as the Duke runs up enormous phone and mail bills without paying for them, demands eight daily newspapers, also without paying for them, zips off to various restaurants and – yes, expects others to pay for him – lies to his brother about the extent of his personal fortune and tops all of this off by whining because, oooh, like, oh my god, Wallis isn't going to get to be called "Her Royal Highness" after they get married! She can only be called "Her Grace." It's LIKE THE WORST INSULT EVER PEOPLE AND HE WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIS FAMILY.
(Wikipedia does confirm that this was a Very Big Deal at the time, but in this book, it's just irritating, and puts any other sense of entitlement you may encounter, including mine (which, let's face it, is occasionally strong) into perspective. The only good thing about the entire incident is that the guy they were sponging off of before their wedding? The same guy that Baba said was charming? Later worked for the Nazis, so I feel a bit better that the Duke of Windsor took advantage of him here. But still.)
In a later bit, Fruity goes to the Windsors to inform them that a plane is arriving to take them from France.
Windsors, loftily: We refuse to leave France and go to England unless we have a formal invitation from the king and a welcome to Windsor Castle. Also, a proper yacht, because flying is so, you know, not us.
Fruity: THE GERMANS ARE INVADING.
Windsors: ...And?
Fruity: AND THEY ARE KILLING PEOPLE.
Windsors: ...And?
Fruity: AND IF YOU DON'T LET THE PLANE COME, YOUR STAFF CAN'T LEAVE, AND WILL GET SHOT.
Windsors: We really can't see how this justifies not using the yacht. So rude! And have you forgotten, they are still calling the Duchess "Your Grace"?
That sort of thing. Those of you with an objection to offensive, racist language will also want to jump over the various things the Duchess of Windsor said while in the Bahamas.
Sidenote: The one public figure my grandmothers both agreed on, completely, was the Duchess of Windsor and that she was just an AWFUL woman. For awhile I was under the mistaken impression that this was thanks to the Duchess' two divorces, which seemed odd coming from the divorced grandmother. I was wrong: the Duchess of Windsor was just an AWFUL woman. AWFUL. But at least, thanks to her, the Duke of Windsor was not king during World War II. So at least she contributed something to life. And the Miami economy where she did a lot of shopping. And I mean a lot. While other people were rationing everything in World War II. And often with other people's money. One of my grandmothers said this was still chatted about with disapproval in Miami all the way through the 1970s.
I blame the Windsors for Baba's decision to have several completely adulterous affairs after her marriage, however much they distressed her husband. This is partly because, as I said, the Windsors are annoying, but it's not a completely unjustified conclusion – while still heir to the throne, the Duke of Windsor continually promised that Fruity would get a high paying court position, which never materialized, mostly leaving poor Fruity financially dependent on his wife, and unable to object too strongly to many of her doings. Which included sleeping around, a lot, with various people, including her brother-in-law Tom Mosley, before and after his marriage to Diana. This is the gossipy and fun part of the book.
The book rather abruptly runs out of steam after World War II, although both Irene and Baba survived the war and continued to do political and charity work for many years after this. I suspect that this is partly because both of them stopped sleeping around quite as much, giving less amusing scandal to talk about, and partly because many of the people they interacted with after World War II are still very much alive. But up until that point, it's a fun, gossipy sort of read. If, that is, you can handle hearing about the Windsors and Tom Mosley and numerous other near fascists, and I can't blame you if you can't.