Noble Women and the Public Sphere in Late Eighteenth-Century England and France

Two scandals, The Diamond Necklace Affair of 1784-1786 and the Westminster Elections of 1784, offer significant perspectives of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, noble women who violated the expectations of their positions as members of the French and English aristocracy. During the Diamond Necklace Affair, a countess attempted to steal a valuable necklace and used Marie as a tool, effectively ruining her reputation through association and allowing the public to criticize Marie for her past actions. Georgiana's reputation was similarly besmirched during the Westminster Elections of 1784 after she engaged openly in politics through canvassing the streets and was accused of bribing voters with kisses. Both beautiful, fashionable, vibrant women who married young, had some degree of difficulty conceiving heirs, and were accused of adultery, Marie and Georgiana are excellent examples of French and English noble women who can be analyzed side-by-side. This project focuses on perceptions of these similar women (how those close to them perceived them, how they wanted to be perceived, and finally how the public perceived them) during these controversies in order to examine the roles women were expected to play in French and English high society in the late eighteenth-century. Through memoirs, letters, verses, portraits, and political cartoons, the sources discussed become gradually more public. Within each stage of analysis, it becomes clear that these women had conflicting private and public self interests, they sought to self-fashion more socially acceptable public images, and their nobility made them subject to public criticism that reached into the private sphere. This research thus argues that noble women were exposed to exceptional notoriety which blurred the lines between the private and public spheres. Additionally, it discusses the high price noble women paid for transgressing social norms and offers an equation between noble women and immorality as a possible reason for the rise of domesticity in the nineteenth-century.