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On the morning of the 7th June 1774, the 17 year old bride and the 26 year old bridegroom, together with the only five guests invited - Lord Richard Cavendish, the Duke's brother, Dorothy, Duchess of Portland, their sister, Lord and Lady Spencer, and Lady Cowper, Georgiana's grandmother - made their way to Wimbledon Park. In the parish church there, the ceremony was conducted. The bride wore a white and gold dress (of which we sadly have no pictures) and silver sleepers. Her hair was adorned with pearl drops. Her emotions could be seen on her face, while the Duke remained inscrutable as always.
Unfortunately, the marriage was unhappy. Georgiana was too naive to realise that the Duke was as cold on the inside as he was on the outside and his infidelities certainly didn't help. Just shortly before their wedding, his mistress Charlotte Spencer, a milliner who wasn't related to his bride, had given birth to their baby daughter Charlotte.
From the start of their marriage, the duke preferred to spend his nights at Brook’s, playing cards until early in the morning. Georgiana launched into London society regardless and due to her high rank, enormous fortune and youthful beauty, she caught the public’s imagination.
Despite that she was married to one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom, she was constantly borrowing money from her friends, from the Prince of Wales, and would flatter the wealthy banker Thomas Coutts with her friendship in exchange for him settling some of her debts.
Georgiana was responsible for providing an heir, which resulted in several miscarriages before giving birth to three children with her husband and an illegitimate daughter fathered by the 2nd Earl Grey. She was also mother to the Duke’s illegitimate daughter, Charlotte.
Because of her close friendship with Charles Fox leader of the whigs party, there were rumors that he became Georgiana’s lover, but there is no evidence of this, nor is there evidence that she was lover to the Prince of Wales, as was her friend Lady Melbourne, whose son George was said to have been fathered by the prince.
Three years after Georgiana died the duke married Bess. Georgiana’s children were not happy and all three disliked Bess. When Bess gloated about the duke giving his illegitimate daughter a larger dowry than his legitimate daughter Harryo, it was met with pride.
When Georgiana died, the most shocking reaction came from The Duke of Devonshire, who was inconsolable. In the final years of Georgiana's life the two had finally become close, and dare I say, even loving. Of course they would have their typical married-people bickering but it was if the calmer, more matronly Georgiana was the wife that Canis had always wanted. Her loss was a blow that the Duke, with his famous countenance, never really recovered from and put him in a sort of numb state until his own death. Guilt as well as the realization that Georgiana would not be holding his hand on his deathbed ate away at him. He locked himself in his room and then one night snapped. Bess stayed up all night with him and described the Duke as "hysterical." He never truly recovered from the blow.
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