Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington

Her Grace The Duchess of Wellington VA
Personal details
Born	Lady Elizabeth Hay (1820-09-27)27 September 1820
Died	13 August 1904(1904-08-13) (aged 83) Burhill Park, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England
Spouse	Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington ​ ​ (m. 1839; died 1884)​
Parent(s)	George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale Lady Susan Montagu
Occupation	Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria

Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, VA (née Hay; 27 September 1820 – 13 August 1904), was a daughter of the 8th Marquess of Tweeddale. Her husband, Lord Douro, succeeded his father as duke of Wellington in 1852. She served as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria from 1861 to 1868, and again from 1874 to 1880.

Early life and family

Lady Elizabeth Hay was born a daughter of George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale. One of her brothers was the ornithologist Viscount Walden, and another the Admiral of the Fleet Lord John Hay.

Marriage

On 18 April 1839, she was married to Lord Douro, eldest son of the famous general and former Tory Prime Minister the 1st Duke of Wellington. Lord Douro succeeded his father as second duke of Wellington in 1852. In 1863 she also became countess of Mornington when her husband inherited the earldom of Mornington on the death of his cousin William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington.

The Duchess of Wellington was appointed Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria in 1861 by the Liberal Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, and continued in that role until 1868, serving through the governments of Lord Russell, Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli. She was again Mistress of the Robes in Disraeli's second government, 1874 to 1880.

Her husband died on 13 August 1884, and the Dowager Duchess survived him for exactly twenty years to the day, dying at Burhill Park, Walton-on-Thames on 13 August 1904. They had no children, and the marriage, which had been arranged by their respective families, was not a happy one; the historian Norman Gash writes, however, that her father-in-law "found much domestic pleasure" in Elizabeth's company.

The Duchess of Wellington was a Third Class recipient of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert during Queen Victoria's reign.

References

Works cited

• Gash, Norman (2004). "Wellesley, Arthur, first duke of Wellington (1769–1852)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29001. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Longford, Elizabeth (1972). Wellington-Elder Statesman. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
• Reynolds, K.D. (1998). Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198207271.