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35-863: In 1897, The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire hosted the Devonshire House Ball at Devonshire House , the London residence (in Piccadilly ) of the Dukes of Devonshire in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Duke had served as a Member of Parliament and a cabinet minister as a member of the Liberal Party and the Duchess, known as the Double Duchess , was the widow of the William Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester . Following

70-552: A commercial treaty which was exceedingly advantageous to France. The same year he accompanied Catherine II in her journey to the Crimea . He returned to Paris in 1789. Ségur took up a sympathetic attitude towards the Revolution at its outset and in 1791 was sent on a mission to Berlin , where he was badly received. After fighting a duel he was forced to leave Berlin, and went into retirement until 1801 when, at Bonaparte 's command, he

105-565: A diamond drop at each curved end and two upstanding white ostrich feathers in the middle, and round the front festoons of pearls with a large pear shaped pearl in the centre falling on the forehead." One of the most expensive costumes was worn by Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough who went as the French Ambassador to the Court of Catherine the Great . The velvet costume was made by

140-716: A government under Hartington, who now declined the premiership for the third time. Instead the Liberal Unionist George Goschen accepted the Exchequer in Churchill's place. Having succeeded as Duke of Devonshire in 1891 he entered the House of Lords where, in 1893, he formally moved for the rejection of the Second Home Rule Bill . Devonshire eventually joined Salisbury's third government in 1895 as Lord President of

175-414: A model of the dutiful aristocrat". It has been said that he was "the best excuse that the last half-century has produced for the continuance of the peerages". With 24 years of government service, Devonshire's is the fourth longest ministerial career in modern British politics. Louis Philippe, comte de S%C3%A9gur Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur (10 December 1753 – 27 August 1830)

210-575: The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha did not receive invitations. When the Duchess of Devonshire saw her at a different jubilee fête and asked if she was coming, "the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha freezingly replied, 'Certainly not'". While the Queen did not attend, almost all of the British royal family attended the ball and nearly every other European royal family was represented. The Duke of Devonshire invited

245-520: The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry from 1855 to 1873, and was honorary colonel of the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Derbyshire Regiment from 1871 and of the 2nd Sussex Artillery Volunteers from 1887. Hartington took great pains to parade his interest in horseracing, so as to cultivate an image of not being entirely obsessed by politics. For many years, the courtesan Catherine Walters ("Skittles")

280-554: The First Home Rule Bill became the leader of the Liberal Unionists. After the general election of 1886 Hartington declined to become Prime Minister, preferring instead to hold the balance of power in the House of Commons and give support from the back benches to the second Conservative government of Lord Salisbury. Early in 1887, after the resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill , Salisbury offered to step down and serve in

315-612: The House of Worth and was embroidered in silver, pearls and diamonds with a waistcoat made out of gold and white damask . The price of the costume, which cost 5,000 francs , reportedly even shocked the Duke, who had famously married American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt in 1895. The ball was reproduced on the London stage in Drury Lane in September 1897 "to the scandal of nobility and the amusement of

350-658: The murder of his younger brother Lord Frederick Cavendish in Phoenix Park . After being elected in December 1885 for the newly created Rossendale Division of Lancashire , he broke with Gladstone altogether. He declined to serve in Gladstone's third government , formed after Gladstone came out in favour of Irish Home Rule (unlike Joseph Chamberlain, who accepted the Local Government Board but then resigned), and after opposing

385-492: The 1919 film, The White Heather . 51°30′26″N 0°08′34″W  /  51.5073°N 0.1428°W  / 51.5073; -0.1428 Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire , KG , GCVO , PC , PC (Ire) , FRS (23 July 1833 – 24 March 1908), styled Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1834 and 1858 and Marquess of Hartington between 1858 and 1891,

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420-716: The Admiralty and Under-Secretary of State for War under Palmerston and Earl Russell. In the 1868 general election he lost his seat; having refused the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland , he was made Postmaster-General , without a seat in the Cabinet. The next year he re-entered the Commons, having been returned for Radnor . In 1870 Hartington reluctantly accepted the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland in Gladstone's first government . In 1875 –

455-614: The Council , and from March 1900 was also President of the Board of Education . Devonshire was not asked to become Prime Minister when Lord Salisbury retired in favour of his nephew Arthur Balfour in 1902. He resigned from the government in 1903, and from the Liberal Unionist Association the following spring, in protest at Joseph Chamberlain 's Tariff Reform scheme. Devonshire said of Chamberlain's proposals: I venture to express

490-512: The Duke can be found at the junction of Whitehall and Horse Guards Avenue in London , and also on the Western Lawns at Eastbourne. Upon receiving news of the Duke's death, the House of Lords took the unprecedented step of adjourning in his honour. Margot Asquith said the Duke of Devonshire "was a man whose like we shall never see again; he stood by himself and could have come from no country in

525-581: The London photographic firm of James Lafayette , who had been awarded a Royal Warrant ten years previously, to set up a tent (in the garden behind the house) to photograph the guests in costume during the Ball. In 1899, the studio of Walker & Boutal published 286 of the Lafayette photographs. Following the ball, the Duchess received a letter from Francis Knollys , Private Secretary to the Sovereign , indicating that

560-496: The Prince and Princess of Wales, therefore, decided to throw a costume ball to celebrate Queen Victoria 's diamond jubilee . The Queen's Diamond Jubilee procession had taken place on 22 June 1897 and followed a route six miles long through London. More than 700 invitations were sent out a month before the event, although some reports of the event stated up to 3,000 invites. By accident, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Maria ,

595-445: The Prince, later King Edward VII , who arrived after 11 o'clock, thought the party a success. At the ball, the attendees included: The Duchess of Devonshire's costume was described in detail by The Times : "The Duchess of Devonshire, as Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, wore a magnificent costume. The skirt of gold tissue was embroidered all over in a star-like design in emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and other jewels outlined with gold,

630-427: The commoners." The ball was utilized as the setting for the last act of a new play entitled The White Heather by Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton . The New York Times stated "the very possessions of royalter were 'desecrated' by exhibition on the stage, for the managers, with enterprise almost America, had purchased from the costumers some of the most gorgeous habiliments worn at that revel." The play inspired

665-407: The corners where it opened in front being elaborately wrought in the same jewels and gold to represent peacocks outspread tails. This opened to show an underdress of cream crepe de chine, delicately embroidered in silver, gold, and pearls and sprinkled all over with diamonds. The train, which was attached to the shoulders by two slender points and was fastened at the waist with a large diamond ornament,

700-448: The death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria had withdrawn from social life and "the mantle of royal entertaining" was passed to the Prince of Wales and his wife, Alexandra . During the 1870s, they hosted a costume ball at Marlborough House , their London residence, which was considered a success and carried on the popularity of such events. The Devonshires, who were close friends of

735-567: The government, hoping that Devonshire would remain for the sake of balance, but the latter eventually resigned under pressure from Charles Thomson Ritchie and from his wife, who still hoped that he might lead a government including leading Liberals. But in the autumn of 1907 his health gave way, and grave symptoms of cardiac weakness necessitated his abstaining from public effort and spending the winter abroad. He died, rather suddenly of pneumonia in his home after falling ill on his vacation to Cannes, on 24 March 1908. He served part-time as captain in

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770-640: The imminent catastrophe, Hartington persuaded Gladstone to send troops for the relief of Khartoum which arrived two days too late. A considerable number of the Conservative party long held him chiefly responsible for the "betrayal of Gordon". His lethargic manner, apart from his position as war minister, helped to associate him in their minds with a disaster which emphasized the fact that the government acted "too late"; but Gladstone and Lord Granville were no less responsible than he. Hartington became increasingly uneasy with Gladstone's Irish policies, especially after

805-737: The opinion that [Chamberlain] will find among the projects and plans which he will be called upon to discuss none containing a more Socialistic principle than that which is embodied in his own scheme, which, whether it can properly be described as a scheme of protection or not, is certainly a scheme under which the State is to undertake to regulate the course of commerce and of industry, and tell us where we are to buy, where we are to sell, what commodities we are to manufacture at home, and what we may continue, if we think right, to import from other countries. Balfour, trying to juggle different factions, had allowed both Chamberlain and Free Trade supporters to resign from

840-555: The special mission to Russia for Alexander II 's accession, Lord Cavendish of Keighley (as he was styled at the time) entered Parliament in the 1857 general election , when he was returned for North Lancashire as a Liberal (his title "Lord Hartington", by which he became known in 1858, was a courtesy title ; as he was not a peer in his own right he was eligible to sit in the Commons until he succeeded his father as Duke of Devonshire in 1891). Between 1863 and 1874, Lord Hartington held various Government posts, including Civil Lord of

875-425: The whig belief in the duty of political leadership, afforced by the intellectual notions characteristic of well-educated, propertied early to mid-Victorian Liberals: a confidence that the application of free trade, rational public administration, scientific enquiry, and a patriotic defence policy would promote Britain's international greatness—in which he strongly believed—and her economic and social progress...he became

910-418: The world but England. He had the figure and appearance of an artisan, with the brevity of a peasant, the courtesy of a king and the noisy sense of humour of a Falstaff . He gave a great, wheezy guffaw at all the right things and was possessed of endless wisdom. He was perfectly disengaged from himself, fearlessly truthful and without pettiness of any kind". Historian Jonathan Parry claimed that "He inherited

945-528: The year following Liberal defeat at a general election — he succeeded William Ewart Gladstone as Leader of the Liberal opposition in the House of Commons, after the other serious contender, W. E. Forster , had indicated that he was not interested in the post. The following year, however, Gladstone returned to active political life in the campaign against Turkey's Bulgarian Atrocities . The relative political fortunes of Gladstone and Hartington fluctuated – Gladstone

980-422: Was "too easy-going and too little of a party man." He held some passions, but he rarely displayed them regarding the most controversial issues of the day. Devonshire was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Burlington , who succeeded his cousin as Duke of Devonshire in 1858, and Lady Blanche Cavendish (née Howard). Lord Frederick Cavendish and Lord Edward Cavendish were his younger brothers. He

1015-656: Was a French diplomat and historian . Ségur was born in Paris , the son of Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur and Louise Anne Madeleine de Vernon. He entered the army in 1769, served in the American War of Independence in 1781 as a colonel under Rochambeau . In 1784 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to Saint Petersburg , where he was received into the intimacy of the empress Catherine II and wrote some comedies for her theatre. At Saint Petersburg he concluded (in January 1787)

1050-638: Was a British statesman. He has the distinction of having held leading positions in three political parties: leading the Liberal Party , the Liberal Unionist Party and the Conservative Party in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords . After 1886 he increasingly voted with the Conservatives. He declined to become prime minister on three occasions, because the circumstances were never right. Historian and politician Roy Jenkins said he

1085-583: Was a green velvet of a lovely shade, and was superbly embroidered in Oriental designs introducing the lotus flower in rubies, sapphires, amethysts, emeralds, and diamonds, with four borderings on contrasting grounds, separated with gold cord. The train was lined with turquoise satin. The bodice was composed of gold tissue to match the skirt, and the front was of crepe de chine hidden with a stomacher of real diamonds, rubies and emeralds and jewelled belt. A gold crown incrusted (sic) with emeralds, diamonds, and rubies, with

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1120-530: Was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge , where he graduated as MA in 1854, having taken a Second in the Mathematical Tripos . He later was made honorary LLD in 1862, and as DCL at Oxford University in 1878. In later life he continued his interests in education as Chancellor of his old university from 1892, and of Manchester University from 1907 until his death. He was Lord Rector of Edinburgh University from 1877 to 1880. After joining

1155-548: Was his mistress. He was married at Christ Church, Mayfair , on 16 August 1892, at the age of 59, to Louisa Frederica Augusta von Alten , widow of the late William Drogo Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester . Upon his death, he was succeeded by his nephew Victor Cavendish . He died of pneumonia at the Chatsworth House in Derbyshire and was interred on 28 March 1908 at St Peter's Churchyard, Edensor , Derbyshire . A statue of

1190-563: Was instrumental in persuading Gladstone to send General Gordon on a mission to evacuate the Sudan. Despite the repeated objections of consul-general in Egypt Sir Evelyn Baring , the indomitable Gordon was finally sent to Khartoum, where he did exactly the opposite of what he was sent to do, resulting in the siege of the city by the Mahdi and the final massacre of Gordon and 20,000 Arabs. Before

1225-913: Was not popular at the time of Benjamin Disraeli 's triumph at the Congress of Berlin, but the Midlothian Campaigns of 1879–80 marked him out as the Liberals' foremost public campaigner. In 1880, after Disraeli's government lost the general election, Hartington was invited by the Queen to form a government, but declined – as did the Earl Granville , Liberal Leader in the House of Lords – after Gladstone made it clear that he would not serve under anybody else. Hartington chose instead to serve in Gladstone's second government as Secretary of State for India (1880–1882) and Secretary of State for War (1882–1885). In 1884 he

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