June 23, 2025 • 36 mins
After a difficult childhood, Rosina Bulwer-Lytton landed in a marriage that quickly turned chaotic and stressful, and then became abusive. Part one covers the period of her life up to their separation.
Research:
- “A Scene at the Hertfordshire Election.” The Tiverton Gazette. 6/29/1858. https://www.newspapers.com/image/803824054/
- Blain, Virginia. “Rosina Bulwer Lytton and the Rage of the Unheard.” Huntington Library Quarterly , Summer, 1990, Vol. 53, No. 3. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3817439
- Brown, Andrew. "Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer [formerly Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer], first Baron Lytton (1803–1873), writer and politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press. Date of access 4 Jun. 2025, https://www-oxforddnb-com.proxy.bostonathenaeum.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-17314
- Bulwer-Lytton, Rosina. “Lady Bulwer Lytton's Appeal to the Justice and Charity of the English Public.” By and For the Author. 1857.
- Devey, Louisa, editor. “Letters of the late Edward Bulwer, lord Lytton, to his wife.” New York : G. W. Dillingham. 1889.
- Devey, Louisa. “Life of Rosina, Lady Lytton: With Numerous Extracts from Her Ms. Autobiography and Other Original Documents.” London, Swan Sonnschein, Lowery & Co. 1887.
- Flynn, Michael J. “Dickens, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, and the ‘Guilt’ of Literature and Art.” Dickens Quarterly, March 2012, Vol. 29, No. 1 (March 2012). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45292582
- King, Cornelia. “Getting Even: The Mighty Pen of Lady Bulwer Lytton.” The Library Company of Philadelphia. 5/10/2022. https://librarycompany.org/2022/05/10/getting-even/
- Latané, D.E. “Edward Bulwer Lytton’s committal of his wife Rosina to a private mental asylum in 1858.” Victorian Web. https://victorianweb.org/authors/bulwer/latane.html
- McFadden, Margaret. “Anna Doyle Wheeler (1785-1848): Philosopher, Socialist, Feminist.” Hypatia, vol. 4, no. 1, 1989, pp. 91–101. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3809936. Accessed 3 June 2025.
- Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. "Fame, notoriety and madness: Edward Bulwer-Lytton paying the price of greatness." Critical Survey, vol. 13, no. 2, May 2001, pp. 115+. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A80191856/LitRC?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=2669a158. Accessed 27 May 2025.
- Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. "Lytton, Rosina Anne Doyle Bulwer [née Rosina Anne Doyle Wheeler], Lady Lytton (1802–1882), novelist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 08, 2009. Oxford University Press. Date of access 28 May. 2025, https://www-oxforddnb-com.proxy.bostonathenaeum.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-17316
- Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. “‘The Very Worst Woman I Ever Heard of’: Rosina Bulwer Lytton and Biography as Vindication.” Women's Writing, 25:2, 253-267, DOI: 10.1080/09699082.2017.1387338
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you're a regular listener to the show and you
listen to the episodes in order, you have heard me
talk about getting into a topic that was unwieldy, and
so I dropped it immediately to instead do an episode
on electro cardiograms. Now we have come to the unwieldy topic.
For a very long time, novelist Edward Bulwert Lytton has
(00:39):
been lingering on my shortlist. His eighteen thirty novel Paul
Clifford started with the words it was a dark and
stormy night. Believe it or not, he was not the
first person ever to publish that phrase, but afterward it
became widely used and reused and satirized and lampooned, and
it even spawned the bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest for Bad
(01:03):
First Sentences, which was held at San Jose State University for.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Forty two years.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I really knew zero about Edward Bowler Lytton besides that
one thing, and so I was just kind of like
that guy, what was his deal there was in the shortlist.
More recently, I was trying to figure out if I
had access to enough information to do an episode on
Bianca Cappello, who was the sixteenth century Grand Duchess Consort
(01:33):
of Tuscany. Her life is described as full of scandal.
Horace Walpole, who we covered on the show back in October,
was talking about a painting of her when he coined
the word serendipity. So that quest led me to Edward
Bulwer Lytton's wife, Rosina, who wrote a historical novel about
(01:55):
Bianca Cappello in eighteen forty three, and it did not
take long for Rose to take her husband's place on
my short list and then to move up to the
top to do an episode. Edward is still a big
part of this episode, though, because it is really about
their marriage and their separation. According to Rosina, Edward was
abusive and he definitely had multiple affairs, and because married
(02:20):
women in England really had no legal status independently of
their husband, Rosina's options in this were incredibly limited. She
wrote that novel because she was trying to make ends
meet in the wake of their separation. This turned into
a two parter Today's episode is about Rosina's early life
(02:40):
and the early years of her relationship with Edward up
to their separation. Again, that story is going to involve abuse,
and then on Wednesday we will talk about their decades
of living in separation and Rosina's very embittered writing about it.
Rosina Doyle Wheeler was born on November fourth, eighteen oh two,
(03:04):
in County Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of Francis
Massey Wheeler and Anna Doyle Wheeler. Francis and Anna had
six children together, but only two of them survived their infancy,
Rosina and her older sister, Henrietta, who was born in
eighteen oh one. Anna Wheeler was known to be clever, witty,
well read, and extremely beautiful. She was self educated and
(03:28):
that education included things like French philosophy and the writing
of Mary Wolstoncraft. Anna became an advocate for cooperative socialism
and for women's rights, and she also co authored a
work called Appeal of one half of the Human Race,
Women against the pretensions of the other half men to
retain them in political and hence in civil and domestic slavery.
(03:53):
In reply to a paragraph of mister Mill's celebrated article
on government. Her co author in this piece was William Thompson.
Anna and William didn't write this until eighteen twenty five,
when Rosina was already an adult, but it does help
illustrate the political and legal position of women in the
UK at this point, and the kinds of opinions Rosina
(04:15):
would have been exposed to through her mother. The paragraph
that Anna and William were responding to was written by
James Mill in an essay on government that was printed
in Encyclopedia Britannica. That paragraph read quote, one thing is
pretty clear that all those individuals whose interests are indisputably
included in those of other individuals may be struck off
(04:39):
from political rights without inconvenience. In this light may be
viewed all children up to a certain age whose interests
are involved in those of their parents. In this light,
women may also be regarded the interest of almost all
of whom is involved either in that of their fathers
or in that of their husbands. Ill co written by
(05:01):
Anna Wheeler and William Thompson, calls this paragraph offensive and
anti social. The introduction to the appeal is framed as
a letter from Thompson to Wheeler, and it read in
part quote, You look forward, as I do, to a
state of society very different from that which now exists,
in which the effort of all is to outwit, supplant
(05:23):
and snatch from each other. Where interest is systematically opposed
to duty, where the so called system of morals is
little more than a mass of hypocrisy preached by knaves,
unpracticed by them to keep their slaves male as well
as female, in blind, uninquiring obedience, And where the whole
Botley fabric is kept together by fear and blood. You
(05:47):
look forward to a better aspect of society, where the
principle of benevolence shall supersede that of fear, Where restless
and anxious individual competition shall give place to mutual cooperation
and joint possession. Where individuals in large numbers, male and female,
forming voluntary associations shall become a mutual guarantee to each
(06:10):
other for the supply of all useful wants, and form
an unsalaried and uninsolvent insurance company against all ensurable casualties.
Where perfect freedom of opinion and perfect equality will reign
amongst the cooperators, and where the children of all will
be equally educated and provided for by the whole, even
(06:33):
these children longer the slaves of individual caprice.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
This piece noted that quote, the interests of men and
women are so involved in each other that political power
possessed by the one must be impartially used for the
benefit of both. But it also made a rhetorical argument
that if political power had to rest only with one sex,
then it should be women, because women were the weaker
(06:57):
party and would not be able to overlook the needs
of men the way men were able to overlook the
needs of women.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Anna Wheeler's thoughts on marriage were partially informed by her
own marriage. She and Frances got married when they were
both still in their teens. Her family, when they found
out about this relationship, had proposed to send her to London,
not necessarily to separate them, but just to give her
more time to grow up and to learn her own
(07:26):
mind before getting married, but that suggestion had just led
her to double down on her insistence that they get
married immediately. Frances seems to have been outwardly amiable, but
he also drank excessively and his behavior could be threatening.
According to Rosina's account, when she was born, her mother's
(07:46):
attendants were terrified to tell Francis that she was a girl,
because he had been so adamant about wanting a son
that they were legitimately scared of what his reaction would be.
In eighteen twelve, Anna left to Francis and she took
Henrietta and Rosina with her. They went to Guernsey, where
Anna's uncle, Sir John Doyle, was Lieutenant Governor. He had
(08:09):
been something of a surrogate father to Anna after her
own father's death. Mother and daughters moved into rooms at
the Government House, which was a lot more lavish than
where they'd been living in Kilross, Ireland. The girls had
a French governess and an assortment of tutors, and Rosina
described the atmosphere of the house as quote sort of
(08:30):
perpetual saturnalia that was allowed, unchecked to go on. She
also developed a flare for mimicry, imitating their governess and
their tutors and various guests who came to the Government House.
While this was a financially comfortable situation, Rosina still found
these years difficult. Henrietta was clearly their mother's favorite, and
(08:52):
Rosina later wrote, quote, I soon became that most miserable
of created beings, the neglected sister of a favorite and
favored child. Not that I envied Henrietta for being loved, indulged,
and privileged on all occasions, For it was impossible not
to love one so gentle, so gifted, and so good.
(09:13):
I thought it was a matter of course that everyone
must do. So still I did long for a little
of my mother's love. The family left Guernsey in eighteen sixteen,
and we'll get to that after a sponsor break. Sir
(09:35):
John Doyle left office as Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey in
eighteen sixteen, so at that point the family no longer
had a place at the government house. Rosina and Henrietta
were sent to a private school in Kensington in London,
while their mother went to France. Their animde connections to socialists,
activists and philosophers, and she was nicknamed the Goddess of Reason.
(10:00):
She started to call for a redistribution of wealth that
will allow women to live independently of men. In eighteen twenty,
Rosina's father, Francis died and her older sister Henrietta inherited
his property in Ireland. Their mother started supplementing her income
with writing, lecturing, and translating work from French.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
There's not a.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Lot of detail about the next few years of Versina's life,
but in October of eighteen twenty five she met Edward
George Earl Lytton Bulwer. He's known as Edward bulwerd Lytton today,
but that is a name change that happened a little later.
Edward was freshly returned from France. He had his hair
and ringlets, and he was carrying a cane and decked
(10:45):
out in French attire that wouldn't become fashionable in England
for another few years. Rosina described him as quote unmistakably gentlemanlike,
and he had a reputation for being simultaneously a dandy
and an intollal. Edward's acquaintances included novelist Lady Caroline Lamb,
(11:05):
who had become famous in part for her relationship with
George Gordon Lord Byron, who had died the previous year.
She's the person who described Lord Byron as mad, bad
and dangerous to know, according to Rosina's notations on Edward's
letters later on, at one point Caroline told her, quote,
don't let Edward Bulwer hunt you down. They are a
(11:28):
bad set. After meeting at a social event, Rosina and
Edwards started corresponding. For the most part, Edward's letters are
the ones that we have today. There are some published
collections of Rosina's letters, but they're not widely available in
the United States, and they are mostly letters to other people.
In his letters, Edward seems deeply enamored. Here's an example
(11:53):
of something that he wrote to Rosina. Quote, I have
twice begun to write, and twice I have destroyed what
I have written. This same restraint which oppressed me in speaking,
seems to operate also upon this method of uttering. The
feelings you have inspired, no matter their nature, you have discovered, love, admiration,
(12:13):
passion are not the less deeply felt for being imperfectly expressed.
The trembling of the voice, the embarrassment of manner, the
difficulty of expression, which diminished the eloquence due justice, at
least to the reality of feeling. From the first moment
I saw you, I was attracted towards you. The sentiments
(12:34):
you inspired carried me back to years of more fresh
and unsullied remembrance. They had no place among the ordinary
attachments which the world had more lately afforded me. I
could not define their nature. I could not reason them away.
In another letter later on, he wrote, Oh, my dear Rose,
(12:54):
where shall I find words to express my love for you?
Your kiss still dwells upon my lips, My hand still
thrills beneath your touch, and your breath still lingers on
my remembrance. Fraught, indeed with more treasures than in India Sea.
Eventually he started addressing his letters with endearments like my
(13:15):
dearest Rose and darlingest Poodle, which I must admit I
find kind of fun and affecting a sort of baby
talk writing style, like writing the word you as ooh
two o's yes as they got into the baby talk,
which is also the way that you might talk to
like a puppy that you're feeling very affectionately toward. I
(13:36):
found them. I was having like the vicarious embarrassment response
to reading them. A number of people have described them
in words like embarrassing and cringey. Edward, though, also wrote
a lot about his mother, Elizabeth Warburton Lytton, and his
fears that she would not approve of his relationship with Resina.
(13:58):
His father, William Earle Bulwer, had died when he was
only four, and by then Edward's older brothers had been
sent away to school, so it was just him and
his mom. His mother treated him almost like an only child.
He was her favorite, and she doted on him and
gave him an extravagant allowance, but that allowance was totally
(14:19):
at her prerogative. The only money he was actually legally
guaranteed was two hundred pounds a year from his father's will,
so Edward was really afraid of his mother cutting him off.
Rosina's sister, Henrietta, died in May of eighteen twenty six,
and Rosina inherited their father's property in Ireland at that point.
(14:42):
One of Edward's letters around this time attempted to console
her both about her sister's death and the state of
her relationship with her mother. Quote, your alienation from your
sister seems formerly to have given you much pain. Now
that very fact makes your consolation. Separation from your mother
threw you into a situation which, to say the least,
(15:04):
was disadvantageous and unpleasant. But had you gone with her
to Paris, it is more than probable that we should
never have met. Let me trust that the last event
will not be the most unfortunate in your life. Sometime
in the months surrounding her sister's death, Rosina and Edward
became engaged, and his letters to her at this point
(15:26):
still sounded just besotted. Here's one quote, my darling, darling,
love and poodle. The more I think of you, the
more I love you. I dote upon you, even to madness,
your beauty so singularly perfect, your kind, noble, warm heart,
your temper so feeling, yet so subdued, Your generous and
(15:47):
devoted love, which my unworthiness, not my reason ever questions,
all impress themselves upon my mind. The deeper in proportion
to the consideration they receive. I see other women, I
turn from them, wearied and disgusted, because I compare them
with you. All that this world offers only seems to
(16:08):
me weary, stale, and unprofitable compared with one recollection of you.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Edward's mother did not know about the engagement, but she
and Rosina had met, and it was clear to Edward
that his mother did not approve of Rosina. In general.
Estimates of the value of the property that Rosina had
inherited in Ireland are really all over the place, but
it seems like it might have given her an income
of about three hundred pounds a year, so she wasn't penniless,
(16:39):
but she definitely wasn't wealthy or even financially comfortable. She
was also irish and outspoken, and at six months older
than Edward, too old in his mother's opinion. Rosina was
also extremely beautiful, and even that was somehow suspect. In
September of eighteen twenty, Edward wrote Rezina a letter in
(17:02):
which he talked about his ambitions for the future. His
mother wanted him to distinguish himself, and he thought that
if he did that, then she could have no objection
to anybody that he might want to marry. He thought
he might earn this distinction by becoming a Member of Parliament,
but there were income and property ownership requirements for MPs
(17:24):
that he did not meet, so he thought he might
make up the difference but in income requirements by writing.
So that became the plan. He would earn enough money
through writing to become eligible to be an MP. He
would get elected, and then he would disclose his engagement
to his mother, and then they would get married. In
(17:46):
my head, there's a cartoon where he has a flow
chart of how his life is going to work does
kind of seem that way. I mean, so much of
it depends on things he cannot control, working out exactly
as he plans right. In October eight, eighteen twenty six,
Edward told his mother about the engagement, even though he
had not yet sold his first novel. This did not
(18:08):
go well, and Edward described a letter his mother had
written him this way quote, there is not in this
letter one kind expression to redeem its want of almost
human consideration for my feelings, and it ends with saying
that if I marry, I should have not her consent,
but her curse. The next several months of Edward and
(18:30):
Rosina's relationship sound chaotic and stressful. Edward was trying to
write a book, and Rosina was reading his drafts and
offering her opinions while also doing some writing work of
her own. Knowledge of his mother's disapproval seemed to just
underpin everything that they did. Edward's mother also allegedly sent
(18:51):
people to Ireland's to investigate Rosina's family. There, the couple
kept setting dates for a wedding and then postponing it,
and at least three times Rosina called the engagement off entirely,
but then they resumed the relationship. Edward sold his first novel, Falkland,
in eighteen twenty seven. It was not the financial success
(19:15):
that he hoped it would be, but he and Rosina
got married in Piccadilly on August twenty ninth of that year.
His mother did not come to the wedding, and afterward,
as she'd threatened to do, she cut off his allowance,
leaving him only with his inheritance from his father and
what he could earn on his own. She also refused
to see him, and she returned all of his letters
(19:37):
unopened for more than a year. In one of his
many letters, Edward had told Rosina that because of this
whole situation with his mother and his reduced income, they
might have to live abroad in total isolation. Instead, they
moved to a secluded house in Oxfordshire, where Edward kept
trying to be a successful writer with Rosina's on ongoing help.
(20:01):
We will talk about how their marriage evolved from this
after we pause for another sponsor break.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Before they got married, it seems like Edward and Rosina
had talked a whole lot about what their lives might
be like if they got married without his mother's approval.
But even so, it just doesn't seem like they were
fully prepared for that reality when it finally arrived. Edward
continued to write Rosina really gushing letters when they were apart,
(20:39):
but he also worked himself just to exhaustion trying to
earn money as a writer, and he expected Rosina's continual
help with that writing. He still had an eye on
a seat in Parliament, and by eighteen twenty eight he
started hinting to Rosina that it might be possible that
he could claim the Doyle baronetcy threw his marriage to her.
(21:04):
By that point, Rosina was pregnant, and her first allegation
of Edward's physical abuse was during that pregnancy. She said
she had been helping him.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
In their library, but she got tired and she had
to lie down on the couch. When he asked her
to go up a ladder to get him another book,
she told him that she was too tired to do it,
and at that point he kicked her. Edward's novel Pelham
or the Adventures of a Gentleman was published in May
of eighteen twenty eight, and it became a huge bestseller.
(21:37):
Their daughter, Emily Elizabeth was born the following month, on
June twenty seventh. Soon after this, Edward decided that Emily
should be sent to a wet nurse because if she
stayed at home, she would take up too much of
Rosina's time when he needed her help with his writing.
By mid July, Rosina was having eye trouble, which a
(21:58):
doctor attributed to her constant weeping at being separated from
her daughter. The doctor ordered her to spend three months
recovering at the seaside town of Weymouth. Edward claimed that Rosina.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Really wasn't affected by this, and that she had always
been more fond of their dogs.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
With the money that he earned from his novel, Edward
bought a house on Hertford Street in the Mayfair district
of London, and the family moved there. He started making
more political connections, and he started repairing his relationship with
his mother, which added another layer of strain to his marriage,
because Elizabeth could be very domineering and as we have established,
(22:40):
she did not approve of Rosina at all.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
In the spring of eighteen thirty one, Edward was elected
MP for Saint Ives. He met the property ownership requirement
through the estate in Ireland that had belonged to Rosina's father.
Because the way marriage worked under British law, women's property
belonged to their husband. On November eighth of that year,
(23:05):
their son, Edward Roberts known as Robert, was born. In
eighteen thirty two, the Great Reform Act was passed in
the UK which reformed the parliamentary system and changed the
requirements to become an MP. This law changed the parliamentary map,
getting rid of so called rotten boroughs that had two
members of Parliament but almost no population to represent. It
(23:29):
also reduced the number of MPs in smaller districts, including
Saint Ives, which dropped from two MPs to one. This
law also loosened up the property ownership requirements for becoming
an MP, which allowed Edward to sell Rosina's property in Ireland,
which he did for a little more than thirty seven
(23:50):
hundred pounds. Rosina had no say at all in this decision,
again because of those same laws about how marriage worked.
After this reform bill passed, Edward was elected MP for Lincoln,
and that was a seat that he held until eighteen
forty one. In the fall of eighteen thirty three, Edward
and Rosina took a trip to Naples, arriving there that November.
(24:14):
Edward is described as exhausted at this point from years
of writing incessantly to try to maintain their income and lifestyle,
but he also wrote. While they were there, he finished
most of his novel The Last Days of Pompeii, which
would be published in eighteen thirty four and become his
most successful book. Edward had been having extramarital affairs which
(24:36):
Rosina knew about, and this included being involved with a
married woman on this trip, and he also again became
violent with Rosina while they were in Naples. Rosina's lady's maid,
Rosetta Byrne, gave a sworn statement about what had happened
later on, and here is what she wrote. Quote, Mister
(24:56):
Edward Lytton Bulwer did her ladyship not only as to
cruel neglect and infidelity, but also as to acts of
brutal personal violence, amongst others. On one occasion, when traveling
in Italy in eighteen thirty three, one night at the
Lake of Bolsano, he so nashed the things about and
at her ladyship that even Luigi the courier avowed he
(25:19):
would not continue the journey with him again at Naples,
after having, in one of his brutal rages, kicked and
banged her ladyship against the stone floor at the Hotel
Vittoria till she was black and blue and had to
keep her bed. A few days after because people began
to talk of this at Naples, he made her poor
lady get up and dress herself to go to a
(25:41):
great dinner at Lord Hertford's. Edward and Rosina returned to
England in early eighteen thirty four, and there was another
major violent incident that July. Rosina's lady's maid described this
in the same sworn testament quote. After we got back
to London, and his temper continued awful towards her ladyship
(26:03):
for having asked him for money to pay the house
bills left unpaid when they were abroad. So one day
in July eighteen thirty four, at dinner at their house
thirty six Hertford Street, Mayfair, London, he seized a carving
knife and rushed at his wife when she cried out,
for God's sake, Edward, take care what you are about.
Then he dropped the knife and sprang on her like
(26:26):
a tiger made his teeth meet in her left cheek
until her screams brought the men servants back into the
dining room. In Rosina's account, this started when she told
her husband that she was going to a christening and
he asked who she was going with. Rosina told him,
and he reportedly said, my mother calls her that ugly
(26:47):
old woman, like over and over again. And when Rosina
just didn't acknowledge him, Edward asked if she had heard him.
She said that she had, and when Edward asked why
she hadn't answered him, she said she didn't think it
required an answer, and that was when he had come
at her with a knife. Shortly after this incident, Edward
wrote Rosina a letter that's said, in part quote, I
(27:09):
am now convinced of what I have long believed. I
am only fit to live alone. God and nature afflicted
me with unsocial habits, weak nerves, and violent passions. Everything
in my life tended to feed these infirmities until they
have become a confirmed and incurable disease, which nothing but
a gentle pity, a forbearing soothing, watchful compassion as of
(27:33):
a nurse over a madman can render bearable to me
or others. They decided to separate, and Edward said that
he would provide Rosina with six hundred pounds a year,
paid out quarterly. He advised her to sell the house
because she wouldn't be able to afford it on that amount,
and he said that where she and the children lived
(27:53):
and how were up to her, although he might decide
to have an influence on their son's education when he
got a little older. At this point, their daughter was
six and their son was three. This was an informal separation,
and over the next few years Rosina and Edward made
some attempts to reconcile. The final straw that led them
(28:14):
to legally separate seems to have happened in eighteen thirty six.
Edward had told Rosina that he was going to have
dinner with her, and then at the last minute, a
servant brought word to her that he was ill. Rosina
went to his rooms to see if he was okay
and to take care of him if necessary, and she
found him with a woman named Laura Deacon. Edward very
(28:37):
indignantly claimed that Rosina had jumped to conclusions and attacked
him after simply seeing that there were two teacups on
the table, but this relationship with Laura Deacon was ongoing,
and the two of them ultimately had three children together.
The only way to obtain a divorce in the UK
at this point was through an act of Parliament. A
(28:59):
man could initiate ate a divorce bill on the grounds
of adultery, and a woman could do so on the
grounds of adultery and also cruelty. Only very wealthy people
could afford to do this, really wealthier than Edward and Rosina, probably,
but beyond that, Edward had no proof that Rosina had
(29:19):
ever been unfaithful, although there had been some rumors that
she had flirted with a prince while they were in Naples.
Rosina might have been able to prove Edward's infidelity, but
she would also have to prove that he was cruel
That would have been a lot harder. That sworn statement
from her maid is something that was written much later on,
and even if she had had something like that to
(29:42):
use as evidence, Edward would have gone to great links
to defend himself from allegations of cruelty. That was just
not something that he would have been willing to admit to.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So they legally separated on April nineteenth, eighteen thirty six.
Their deed of separation said, in part quote, whereas unhappy
differences have arisen and still subsist between this said Edward
George Earl Lytton Bulwer and Rosina and his wife, by
reason whereof they have agreed to live separate and apart
from each other for the future. And whereas the said
(30:16):
Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer has proposed to allow unto
or intrust for the said Rosina and Bulward during the
said separation the yearly sum of four hundred pounds as
a provision for her maintenance and support.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
The deed of separation also specified that Rosina would get
an additional fifty pounds per year for each of her
children as long as they lived with her, and it
established two trustees for her, Sir Francis Hastings Doyle and
the Reverend Sir Thomas Gary Cullum.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
On June fourteenth, eighteen thirty six, Rosina and her children
moved out of Edward's home. She and Edward were both
thirty three, and the children were seven and four. Since
Edward and Rosina were still legally married, she still had
no legal or economic rights apart from him, and was
totally dependent on his support. Unlike her mother, she didn't
(31:11):
have a father figure in a high ranking government position
that she could move in with along with her children.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Sir John Doyle, who had sheltered them when Rosina was
a child, had died two years before this. This was
not a case in which Rosina and Edward happily went
their own way after being separated, and the words of
her maid's sworn statement quote, he has ever since hunted
her through the world with spies and bad women, and
(31:40):
does not allow her enough to live upon for a
lady in her station.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
After their separation, Rosina wrote a lot both to make
up for a lack of income and to make sure
that the world knew what she thought of her husband.
And we're going to get into all of that next time.
Do you have some listener mail to take us out
of this domestic horror?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
I do have some listener mail. Before listener mail, we
can mention once again that we are taking a trip
to Morocco this November. I don't think we have mentioned
that on the show in a bit. The last time
I checked, we were sold out of individual single rooms
and Defined Destinations was getting in touch with people just
(32:23):
to see if there was anybody who might be okay
sharing a room with somebody. There are still spots available
for people traveling together as a pair, whether that's friends
or a couple or whatever. So the best way to
get to that is to go to Defined Destinations dot
com and click on tours and it's the one called
a Taste of Morocco. And yes, now I do have
(32:46):
listener mail. This listener mail is from Gary, who wrote
after our Triple Nichols episode. Gary wrote, Dear Tracy and Holly,
I know I've been writing a lot lately, but I've
been listening to your podcast a lot lately, and I
have thoughts. As a white male boomer and a lifelong
resident of Oregon, I didn't expect the Triple Nichols episode
(33:08):
to hit so close to home, but it did in
several ways. First, my ears perked up at the mention
of Fort Benning. My mom's first husband attended officer Training
school at Fort Benning when my mom was about twenty
one years old. She took a train across the country
to join him there. In later years, she told me
that that train ride through the South and her time
in Georgia were very upsetting to her because of the
(33:28):
widespread poverty and the treatment of black people. Her husband
was killed in a non combat vehicle crash somewhere in
Europe shortly after V Day. When I was going through
her things after she passed away in two thousand, I
found materials from his time at Fort Benning, including a
booklet listing all of his fellow graduates, among whom was
a William Gates Senior, the father of Microsoft's Bill Gates.
(33:52):
Just a fun fact. Then you got to the part
about the Mitchell Party tragedy in Bly and the connection
to the creation of smoke jumpers, including the Triple Nichols
participation in them. My dad's family has lived in that
area since the late nineteenth century, and I too, lived
in nearby Lakeview for several years and have visited the monument.
One of my older brother's best friends earned money for
(34:14):
college as a smoke jumper based out of Cave Junction
near where we grew up in Grant's Pass. But I
really wasn't aware of the five point fifty five or
their connection to the balloon bomb case or the smoke jumpers.
And I'm always really happy when I learned new historical facts,
especially about things and events that have touched my life.
So thanks again for a really interesting episode. I'm attaching
another photo of Judo, the Red Standard poodle, this time
(34:36):
on a little hike with us. She's posing on a
trail surrounded by blooming larkspur. She just turned ten years
old earlier this month, but she's still a very active
girl and loves walking in the forest with us. She
recently pulled a muscle chasing a deer or squirrel, so
we're having to keep her quiet, which is quite a
challenge while at heels. Thanks again for your good work, Gary.
(34:57):
I like how the options of chasing include a deer
and a squirrel, two dissimilar animals. Oh my goodness, dissimilar
but in similar places, similar places, similar fleeing from dogs,
I would imagine. Yeah, what a cute poodle. She's precious,
(35:18):
very cute, with a brown just brown like brown fur,
and a very This face looks very pensive to me.
It is sort of like she's thinking, is it okay
for me to go on ahead of you? Do you
want me to wait? Can I go?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
I'm not sure?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Thank you so much for this email. Gary, you probably
have heard the balloons the Japanese are the Balloons of
World War two episode that we talked more about the
tragedy and fly and the Japanese balloon bombs. We've gotten
a couple of emails that kind of referenced to having
never heard of that before. So in case folks have
(35:57):
missed it, there is an episode in our previous episodes
called the Balloons of World War Two that talks more
about that. So, thank you so much, Gary. If you
would like to send us a note about this or
any other podcast or a history podcast at iHeartRadio dot com,
and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio
app and anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts.
(36:24):
Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
If you're a regular listener to the show and you
listen to the episodes in order, you have heard me
talk about getting into a topic that was unwieldy, and
so I dropped it immediately to instead do an episode
on electro cardiograms. Now we have come to the unwieldy topic.
For a very long time, novelist Edward Bulwert Lytton has
(00:39):
been lingering on my shortlist. His eighteen thirty novel Paul
Clifford started with the words it was a dark and
stormy night. Believe it or not, he was not the
first person ever to publish that phrase, but afterward it
became widely used and reused and satirized and lampooned, and
it even spawned the bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest for Bad
(01:03):
First Sentences, which was held at San Jose State University for.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Forty two years.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I really knew zero about Edward Bowler Lytton besides that
one thing, and so I was just kind of like
that guy, what was his deal there was in the shortlist.
More recently, I was trying to figure out if I
had access to enough information to do an episode on
Bianca Cappello, who was the sixteenth century Grand Duchess Consort
(01:33):
of Tuscany. Her life is described as full of scandal.
Horace Walpole, who we covered on the show back in October,
was talking about a painting of her when he coined
the word serendipity. So that quest led me to Edward
Bulwer Lytton's wife, Rosina, who wrote a historical novel about
(01:55):
Bianca Cappello in eighteen forty three, and it did not
take long for Rose to take her husband's place on
my short list and then to move up to the
top to do an episode. Edward is still a big
part of this episode, though, because it is really about
their marriage and their separation. According to Rosina, Edward was
abusive and he definitely had multiple affairs, and because married
(02:20):
women in England really had no legal status independently of
their husband, Rosina's options in this were incredibly limited. She
wrote that novel because she was trying to make ends
meet in the wake of their separation. This turned into
a two parter Today's episode is about Rosina's early life
(02:40):
and the early years of her relationship with Edward up
to their separation. Again, that story is going to involve abuse,
and then on Wednesday we will talk about their decades
of living in separation and Rosina's very embittered writing about it.
Rosina Doyle Wheeler was born on November fourth, eighteen oh two,
(03:04):
in County Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of Francis
Massey Wheeler and Anna Doyle Wheeler. Francis and Anna had
six children together, but only two of them survived their infancy,
Rosina and her older sister, Henrietta, who was born in
eighteen oh one. Anna Wheeler was known to be clever, witty,
well read, and extremely beautiful. She was self educated and
(03:28):
that education included things like French philosophy and the writing
of Mary Wolstoncraft. Anna became an advocate for cooperative socialism
and for women's rights, and she also co authored a
work called Appeal of one half of the Human Race,
Women against the pretensions of the other half men to
retain them in political and hence in civil and domestic slavery.
(03:53):
In reply to a paragraph of mister Mill's celebrated article
on government. Her co author in this piece was William Thompson.
Anna and William didn't write this until eighteen twenty five,
when Rosina was already an adult, but it does help
illustrate the political and legal position of women in the
UK at this point, and the kinds of opinions Rosina
(04:15):
would have been exposed to through her mother. The paragraph
that Anna and William were responding to was written by
James Mill in an essay on government that was printed
in Encyclopedia Britannica. That paragraph read quote, one thing is
pretty clear that all those individuals whose interests are indisputably
included in those of other individuals may be struck off
(04:39):
from political rights without inconvenience. In this light may be
viewed all children up to a certain age whose interests
are involved in those of their parents. In this light,
women may also be regarded the interest of almost all
of whom is involved either in that of their fathers
or in that of their husbands. Ill co written by
(05:01):
Anna Wheeler and William Thompson, calls this paragraph offensive and
anti social. The introduction to the appeal is framed as
a letter from Thompson to Wheeler, and it read in
part quote, You look forward, as I do, to a
state of society very different from that which now exists,
in which the effort of all is to outwit, supplant
(05:23):
and snatch from each other. Where interest is systematically opposed
to duty, where the so called system of morals is
little more than a mass of hypocrisy preached by knaves,
unpracticed by them to keep their slaves male as well
as female, in blind, uninquiring obedience, And where the whole
Botley fabric is kept together by fear and blood. You
(05:47):
look forward to a better aspect of society, where the
principle of benevolence shall supersede that of fear, Where restless
and anxious individual competition shall give place to mutual cooperation
and joint possession. Where individuals in large numbers, male and female,
forming voluntary associations shall become a mutual guarantee to each
(06:10):
other for the supply of all useful wants, and form
an unsalaried and uninsolvent insurance company against all ensurable casualties.
Where perfect freedom of opinion and perfect equality will reign
amongst the cooperators, and where the children of all will
be equally educated and provided for by the whole, even
(06:33):
these children longer the slaves of individual caprice.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
This piece noted that quote, the interests of men and
women are so involved in each other that political power
possessed by the one must be impartially used for the
benefit of both. But it also made a rhetorical argument
that if political power had to rest only with one sex,
then it should be women, because women were the weaker
(06:57):
party and would not be able to overlook the needs
of men the way men were able to overlook the
needs of women.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Anna Wheeler's thoughts on marriage were partially informed by her
own marriage. She and Frances got married when they were
both still in their teens. Her family, when they found
out about this relationship, had proposed to send her to London,
not necessarily to separate them, but just to give her
more time to grow up and to learn her own
(07:26):
mind before getting married, but that suggestion had just led
her to double down on her insistence that they get
married immediately. Frances seems to have been outwardly amiable, but
he also drank excessively and his behavior could be threatening.
According to Rosina's account, when she was born, her mother's
(07:46):
attendants were terrified to tell Francis that she was a girl,
because he had been so adamant about wanting a son
that they were legitimately scared of what his reaction would be.
In eighteen twelve, Anna left to Francis and she took
Henrietta and Rosina with her. They went to Guernsey, where
Anna's uncle, Sir John Doyle, was Lieutenant Governor. He had
(08:09):
been something of a surrogate father to Anna after her
own father's death. Mother and daughters moved into rooms at
the Government House, which was a lot more lavish than
where they'd been living in Kilross, Ireland. The girls had
a French governess and an assortment of tutors, and Rosina
described the atmosphere of the house as quote sort of
(08:30):
perpetual saturnalia that was allowed, unchecked to go on. She
also developed a flare for mimicry, imitating their governess and
their tutors and various guests who came to the Government House.
While this was a financially comfortable situation, Rosina still found
these years difficult. Henrietta was clearly their mother's favorite, and
(08:52):
Rosina later wrote, quote, I soon became that most miserable
of created beings, the neglected sister of a favorite and
favored child. Not that I envied Henrietta for being loved, indulged,
and privileged on all occasions, For it was impossible not
to love one so gentle, so gifted, and so good.
(09:13):
I thought it was a matter of course that everyone
must do. So still I did long for a little
of my mother's love. The family left Guernsey in eighteen sixteen,
and we'll get to that after a sponsor break. Sir
(09:35):
John Doyle left office as Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey in
eighteen sixteen, so at that point the family no longer
had a place at the government house. Rosina and Henrietta
were sent to a private school in Kensington in London,
while their mother went to France. Their animde connections to socialists,
activists and philosophers, and she was nicknamed the Goddess of Reason.
(10:00):
She started to call for a redistribution of wealth that
will allow women to live independently of men. In eighteen twenty,
Rosina's father, Francis died and her older sister Henrietta inherited
his property in Ireland. Their mother started supplementing her income
with writing, lecturing, and translating work from French.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
There's not a.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Lot of detail about the next few years of Versina's life,
but in October of eighteen twenty five she met Edward
George Earl Lytton Bulwer. He's known as Edward bulwerd Lytton today,
but that is a name change that happened a little later.
Edward was freshly returned from France. He had his hair
and ringlets, and he was carrying a cane and decked
(10:45):
out in French attire that wouldn't become fashionable in England
for another few years. Rosina described him as quote unmistakably gentlemanlike,
and he had a reputation for being simultaneously a dandy
and an intollal. Edward's acquaintances included novelist Lady Caroline Lamb,
(11:05):
who had become famous in part for her relationship with
George Gordon Lord Byron, who had died the previous year.
She's the person who described Lord Byron as mad, bad
and dangerous to know, according to Rosina's notations on Edward's
letters later on, at one point Caroline told her, quote,
don't let Edward Bulwer hunt you down. They are a
(11:28):
bad set. After meeting at a social event, Rosina and
Edwards started corresponding. For the most part, Edward's letters are
the ones that we have today. There are some published
collections of Rosina's letters, but they're not widely available in
the United States, and they are mostly letters to other people.
In his letters, Edward seems deeply enamored. Here's an example
(11:53):
of something that he wrote to Rosina. Quote, I have
twice begun to write, and twice I have destroyed what
I have written. This same restraint which oppressed me in speaking,
seems to operate also upon this method of uttering. The
feelings you have inspired, no matter their nature, you have discovered, love, admiration,
(12:13):
passion are not the less deeply felt for being imperfectly expressed.
The trembling of the voice, the embarrassment of manner, the
difficulty of expression, which diminished the eloquence due justice, at
least to the reality of feeling. From the first moment
I saw you, I was attracted towards you. The sentiments
(12:34):
you inspired carried me back to years of more fresh
and unsullied remembrance. They had no place among the ordinary
attachments which the world had more lately afforded me. I
could not define their nature. I could not reason them away.
In another letter later on, he wrote, Oh, my dear Rose,
(12:54):
where shall I find words to express my love for you?
Your kiss still dwells upon my lips, My hand still
thrills beneath your touch, and your breath still lingers on
my remembrance. Fraught, indeed with more treasures than in India Sea.
Eventually he started addressing his letters with endearments like my
(13:15):
dearest Rose and darlingest Poodle, which I must admit I
find kind of fun and affecting a sort of baby
talk writing style, like writing the word you as ooh
two o's yes as they got into the baby talk,
which is also the way that you might talk to
like a puppy that you're feeling very affectionately toward. I
(13:36):
found them. I was having like the vicarious embarrassment response
to reading them. A number of people have described them
in words like embarrassing and cringey. Edward, though, also wrote
a lot about his mother, Elizabeth Warburton Lytton, and his
fears that she would not approve of his relationship with Resina.
(13:58):
His father, William Earle Bulwer, had died when he was
only four, and by then Edward's older brothers had been
sent away to school, so it was just him and
his mom. His mother treated him almost like an only child.
He was her favorite, and she doted on him and
gave him an extravagant allowance, but that allowance was totally
(14:19):
at her prerogative. The only money he was actually legally
guaranteed was two hundred pounds a year from his father's will,
so Edward was really afraid of his mother cutting him off.
Rosina's sister, Henrietta, died in May of eighteen twenty six,
and Rosina inherited their father's property in Ireland at that point.
(14:42):
One of Edward's letters around this time attempted to console
her both about her sister's death and the state of
her relationship with her mother. Quote, your alienation from your
sister seems formerly to have given you much pain. Now
that very fact makes your consolation. Separation from your mother
threw you into a situation which, to say the least,
(15:04):
was disadvantageous and unpleasant. But had you gone with her
to Paris, it is more than probable that we should
never have met. Let me trust that the last event
will not be the most unfortunate in your life. Sometime
in the months surrounding her sister's death, Rosina and Edward
became engaged, and his letters to her at this point
(15:26):
still sounded just besotted. Here's one quote, my darling, darling,
love and poodle. The more I think of you, the
more I love you. I dote upon you, even to madness,
your beauty so singularly perfect, your kind, noble, warm heart,
your temper so feeling, yet so subdued, Your generous and
(15:47):
devoted love, which my unworthiness, not my reason ever questions,
all impress themselves upon my mind. The deeper in proportion
to the consideration they receive. I see other women, I
turn from them, wearied and disgusted, because I compare them
with you. All that this world offers only seems to
(16:08):
me weary, stale, and unprofitable compared with one recollection of you.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Edward's mother did not know about the engagement, but she
and Rosina had met, and it was clear to Edward
that his mother did not approve of Rosina. In general.
Estimates of the value of the property that Rosina had
inherited in Ireland are really all over the place, but
it seems like it might have given her an income
of about three hundred pounds a year, so she wasn't penniless,
(16:39):
but she definitely wasn't wealthy or even financially comfortable. She
was also irish and outspoken, and at six months older
than Edward, too old in his mother's opinion. Rosina was
also extremely beautiful, and even that was somehow suspect. In
September of eighteen twenty, Edward wrote Rezina a letter in
(17:02):
which he talked about his ambitions for the future. His
mother wanted him to distinguish himself, and he thought that
if he did that, then she could have no objection
to anybody that he might want to marry. He thought
he might earn this distinction by becoming a Member of Parliament,
but there were income and property ownership requirements for MPs
(17:24):
that he did not meet, so he thought he might
make up the difference but in income requirements by writing.
So that became the plan. He would earn enough money
through writing to become eligible to be an MP. He
would get elected, and then he would disclose his engagement
to his mother, and then they would get married. In
(17:46):
my head, there's a cartoon where he has a flow
chart of how his life is going to work does
kind of seem that way. I mean, so much of
it depends on things he cannot control, working out exactly
as he plans right. In October eight, eighteen twenty six,
Edward told his mother about the engagement, even though he
had not yet sold his first novel. This did not
(18:08):
go well, and Edward described a letter his mother had
written him this way quote, there is not in this
letter one kind expression to redeem its want of almost
human consideration for my feelings, and it ends with saying
that if I marry, I should have not her consent,
but her curse. The next several months of Edward and
(18:30):
Rosina's relationship sound chaotic and stressful. Edward was trying to
write a book, and Rosina was reading his drafts and
offering her opinions while also doing some writing work of
her own. Knowledge of his mother's disapproval seemed to just
underpin everything that they did. Edward's mother also allegedly sent
(18:51):
people to Ireland's to investigate Rosina's family. There, the couple
kept setting dates for a wedding and then postponing it,
and at least three times Rosina called the engagement off entirely,
but then they resumed the relationship. Edward sold his first novel, Falkland,
in eighteen twenty seven. It was not the financial success
(19:15):
that he hoped it would be, but he and Rosina
got married in Piccadilly on August twenty ninth of that year.
His mother did not come to the wedding, and afterward,
as she'd threatened to do, she cut off his allowance,
leaving him only with his inheritance from his father and
what he could earn on his own. She also refused
to see him, and she returned all of his letters
(19:37):
unopened for more than a year. In one of his
many letters, Edward had told Rosina that because of this
whole situation with his mother and his reduced income, they
might have to live abroad in total isolation. Instead, they
moved to a secluded house in Oxfordshire, where Edward kept
trying to be a successful writer with Rosina's on ongoing help.
(20:01):
We will talk about how their marriage evolved from this
after we pause for another sponsor break.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Before they got married, it seems like Edward and Rosina
had talked a whole lot about what their lives might
be like if they got married without his mother's approval.
But even so, it just doesn't seem like they were
fully prepared for that reality when it finally arrived. Edward
continued to write Rosina really gushing letters when they were apart,
(20:39):
but he also worked himself just to exhaustion trying to
earn money as a writer, and he expected Rosina's continual
help with that writing. He still had an eye on
a seat in Parliament, and by eighteen twenty eight he
started hinting to Rosina that it might be possible that
he could claim the Doyle baronetcy threw his marriage to her.
(21:04):
By that point, Rosina was pregnant, and her first allegation
of Edward's physical abuse was during that pregnancy. She said
she had been helping him.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
In their library, but she got tired and she had
to lie down on the couch. When he asked her
to go up a ladder to get him another book,
she told him that she was too tired to do it,
and at that point he kicked her. Edward's novel Pelham
or the Adventures of a Gentleman was published in May
of eighteen twenty eight, and it became a huge bestseller.
(21:37):
Their daughter, Emily Elizabeth was born the following month, on
June twenty seventh. Soon after this, Edward decided that Emily
should be sent to a wet nurse because if she
stayed at home, she would take up too much of
Rosina's time when he needed her help with his writing.
By mid July, Rosina was having eye trouble, which a
(21:58):
doctor attributed to her constant weeping at being separated from
her daughter. The doctor ordered her to spend three months
recovering at the seaside town of Weymouth. Edward claimed that Rosina.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Really wasn't affected by this, and that she had always
been more fond of their dogs.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
With the money that he earned from his novel, Edward
bought a house on Hertford Street in the Mayfair district
of London, and the family moved there. He started making
more political connections, and he started repairing his relationship with
his mother, which added another layer of strain to his marriage,
because Elizabeth could be very domineering and as we have established,
(22:40):
she did not approve of Rosina at all.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
In the spring of eighteen thirty one, Edward was elected
MP for Saint Ives. He met the property ownership requirement
through the estate in Ireland that had belonged to Rosina's father.
Because the way marriage worked under British law, women's property
belonged to their husband. On November eighth of that year,
(23:05):
their son, Edward Roberts known as Robert, was born. In
eighteen thirty two, the Great Reform Act was passed in
the UK which reformed the parliamentary system and changed the
requirements to become an MP. This law changed the parliamentary map,
getting rid of so called rotten boroughs that had two
members of Parliament but almost no population to represent. It
(23:29):
also reduced the number of MPs in smaller districts, including
Saint Ives, which dropped from two MPs to one. This
law also loosened up the property ownership requirements for becoming
an MP, which allowed Edward to sell Rosina's property in Ireland,
which he did for a little more than thirty seven
(23:50):
hundred pounds. Rosina had no say at all in this decision,
again because of those same laws about how marriage worked.
After this reform bill passed, Edward was elected MP for Lincoln,
and that was a seat that he held until eighteen
forty one. In the fall of eighteen thirty three, Edward
and Rosina took a trip to Naples, arriving there that November.
(24:14):
Edward is described as exhausted at this point from years
of writing incessantly to try to maintain their income and lifestyle,
but he also wrote. While they were there, he finished
most of his novel The Last Days of Pompeii, which
would be published in eighteen thirty four and become his
most successful book. Edward had been having extramarital affairs which
(24:36):
Rosina knew about, and this included being involved with a
married woman on this trip, and he also again became
violent with Rosina while they were in Naples. Rosina's lady's maid,
Rosetta Byrne, gave a sworn statement about what had happened
later on, and here is what she wrote. Quote, Mister
(24:56):
Edward Lytton Bulwer did her ladyship not only as to
cruel neglect and infidelity, but also as to acts of
brutal personal violence, amongst others. On one occasion, when traveling
in Italy in eighteen thirty three, one night at the
Lake of Bolsano, he so nashed the things about and
at her ladyship that even Luigi the courier avowed he
(25:19):
would not continue the journey with him again at Naples,
after having, in one of his brutal rages, kicked and
banged her ladyship against the stone floor at the Hotel
Vittoria till she was black and blue and had to
keep her bed. A few days after because people began
to talk of this at Naples, he made her poor
lady get up and dress herself to go to a
(25:41):
great dinner at Lord Hertford's. Edward and Rosina returned to
England in early eighteen thirty four, and there was another
major violent incident that July. Rosina's lady's maid described this
in the same sworn testament quote. After we got back
to London, and his temper continued awful towards her ladyship
(26:03):
for having asked him for money to pay the house
bills left unpaid when they were abroad. So one day
in July eighteen thirty four, at dinner at their house
thirty six Hertford Street, Mayfair, London, he seized a carving
knife and rushed at his wife when she cried out,
for God's sake, Edward, take care what you are about.
Then he dropped the knife and sprang on her like
(26:26):
a tiger made his teeth meet in her left cheek
until her screams brought the men servants back into the
dining room. In Rosina's account, this started when she told
her husband that she was going to a christening and
he asked who she was going with. Rosina told him,
and he reportedly said, my mother calls her that ugly
(26:47):
old woman, like over and over again. And when Rosina
just didn't acknowledge him, Edward asked if she had heard him.
She said that she had, and when Edward asked why
she hadn't answered him, she said she didn't think it
required an answer, and that was when he had come
at her with a knife. Shortly after this incident, Edward
wrote Rosina a letter that's said, in part quote, I
(27:09):
am now convinced of what I have long believed. I
am only fit to live alone. God and nature afflicted
me with unsocial habits, weak nerves, and violent passions. Everything
in my life tended to feed these infirmities until they
have become a confirmed and incurable disease, which nothing but
a gentle pity, a forbearing soothing, watchful compassion as of
(27:33):
a nurse over a madman can render bearable to me
or others. They decided to separate, and Edward said that
he would provide Rosina with six hundred pounds a year,
paid out quarterly. He advised her to sell the house
because she wouldn't be able to afford it on that amount,
and he said that where she and the children lived
(27:53):
and how were up to her, although he might decide
to have an influence on their son's education when he
got a little older. At this point, their daughter was
six and their son was three. This was an informal separation,
and over the next few years Rosina and Edward made
some attempts to reconcile. The final straw that led them
(28:14):
to legally separate seems to have happened in eighteen thirty six.
Edward had told Rosina that he was going to have
dinner with her, and then at the last minute, a
servant brought word to her that he was ill. Rosina
went to his rooms to see if he was okay
and to take care of him if necessary, and she
found him with a woman named Laura Deacon. Edward very
(28:37):
indignantly claimed that Rosina had jumped to conclusions and attacked
him after simply seeing that there were two teacups on
the table, but this relationship with Laura Deacon was ongoing,
and the two of them ultimately had three children together.
The only way to obtain a divorce in the UK
at this point was through an act of Parliament. A
(28:59):
man could initiate ate a divorce bill on the grounds
of adultery, and a woman could do so on the
grounds of adultery and also cruelty. Only very wealthy people
could afford to do this, really wealthier than Edward and Rosina, probably,
but beyond that, Edward had no proof that Rosina had
(29:19):
ever been unfaithful, although there had been some rumors that
she had flirted with a prince while they were in Naples.
Rosina might have been able to prove Edward's infidelity, but
she would also have to prove that he was cruel
That would have been a lot harder. That sworn statement
from her maid is something that was written much later on,
and even if she had had something like that to
(29:42):
use as evidence, Edward would have gone to great links
to defend himself from allegations of cruelty. That was just
not something that he would have been willing to admit to.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So they legally separated on April nineteenth, eighteen thirty six.
Their deed of separation said, in part quote, whereas unhappy
differences have arisen and still subsist between this said Edward
George Earl Lytton Bulwer and Rosina and his wife, by
reason whereof they have agreed to live separate and apart
from each other for the future. And whereas the said
(30:16):
Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer has proposed to allow unto
or intrust for the said Rosina and Bulward during the
said separation the yearly sum of four hundred pounds as
a provision for her maintenance and support.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
The deed of separation also specified that Rosina would get
an additional fifty pounds per year for each of her
children as long as they lived with her, and it
established two trustees for her, Sir Francis Hastings Doyle and
the Reverend Sir Thomas Gary Cullum.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
On June fourteenth, eighteen thirty six, Rosina and her children
moved out of Edward's home. She and Edward were both
thirty three, and the children were seven and four. Since
Edward and Rosina were still legally married, she still had
no legal or economic rights apart from him, and was
totally dependent on his support. Unlike her mother, she didn't
(31:11):
have a father figure in a high ranking government position
that she could move in with along with her children.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Sir John Doyle, who had sheltered them when Rosina was
a child, had died two years before this. This was
not a case in which Rosina and Edward happily went
their own way after being separated, and the words of
her maid's sworn statement quote, he has ever since hunted
her through the world with spies and bad women, and
(31:40):
does not allow her enough to live upon for a
lady in her station.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
After their separation, Rosina wrote a lot both to make
up for a lack of income and to make sure
that the world knew what she thought of her husband.
And we're going to get into all of that next time.
Do you have some listener mail to take us out
of this domestic horror?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
I do have some listener mail. Before listener mail, we
can mention once again that we are taking a trip
to Morocco this November. I don't think we have mentioned
that on the show in a bit. The last time
I checked, we were sold out of individual single rooms
and Defined Destinations was getting in touch with people just
(32:23):
to see if there was anybody who might be okay
sharing a room with somebody. There are still spots available
for people traveling together as a pair, whether that's friends
or a couple or whatever. So the best way to
get to that is to go to Defined Destinations dot
com and click on tours and it's the one called
a Taste of Morocco. And yes, now I do have
(32:46):
listener mail. This listener mail is from Gary, who wrote
after our Triple Nichols episode. Gary wrote, Dear Tracy and Holly,
I know I've been writing a lot lately, but I've
been listening to your podcast a lot lately, and I
have thoughts. As a white male boomer and a lifelong
resident of Oregon, I didn't expect the Triple Nichols episode
(33:08):
to hit so close to home, but it did in
several ways. First, my ears perked up at the mention
of Fort Benning. My mom's first husband attended officer Training
school at Fort Benning when my mom was about twenty
one years old. She took a train across the country
to join him there. In later years, she told me
that that train ride through the South and her time
in Georgia were very upsetting to her because of the
(33:28):
widespread poverty and the treatment of black people. Her husband
was killed in a non combat vehicle crash somewhere in
Europe shortly after V Day. When I was going through
her things after she passed away in two thousand, I
found materials from his time at Fort Benning, including a
booklet listing all of his fellow graduates, among whom was
a William Gates Senior, the father of Microsoft's Bill Gates.
(33:52):
Just a fun fact. Then you got to the part
about the Mitchell Party tragedy in Bly and the connection
to the creation of smoke jumpers, including the Triple Nichols
participation in them. My dad's family has lived in that
area since the late nineteenth century, and I too, lived
in nearby Lakeview for several years and have visited the monument.
One of my older brother's best friends earned money for
(34:14):
college as a smoke jumper based out of Cave Junction
near where we grew up in Grant's Pass. But I
really wasn't aware of the five point fifty five or
their connection to the balloon bomb case or the smoke jumpers.
And I'm always really happy when I learned new historical facts,
especially about things and events that have touched my life.
So thanks again for a really interesting episode. I'm attaching
another photo of Judo, the Red Standard poodle, this time
(34:36):
on a little hike with us. She's posing on a
trail surrounded by blooming larkspur. She just turned ten years
old earlier this month, but she's still a very active
girl and loves walking in the forest with us. She
recently pulled a muscle chasing a deer or squirrel, so
we're having to keep her quiet, which is quite a
challenge while at heels. Thanks again for your good work, Gary.
(34:57):
I like how the options of chasing include a deer
and a squirrel, two dissimilar animals. Oh my goodness, dissimilar
but in similar places, similar places, similar fleeing from dogs,
I would imagine. Yeah, what a cute poodle. She's precious,
(35:18):
very cute, with a brown just brown like brown fur,
and a very This face looks very pensive to me.
It is sort of like she's thinking, is it okay
for me to go on ahead of you? Do you
want me to wait? Can I go?
Speaker 1 (35:34):
I'm not sure?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Thank you so much for this email. Gary, you probably
have heard the balloons the Japanese are the Balloons of
World War two episode that we talked more about the
tragedy and fly and the Japanese balloon bombs. We've gotten
a couple of emails that kind of referenced to having
never heard of that before. So in case folks have
(35:57):
missed it, there is an episode in our previous episodes
called the Balloons of World War Two that talks more
about that. So, thank you so much, Gary. If you
would like to send us a note about this or
any other podcast or a history podcast at iHeartRadio dot com,
and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio
app and anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts.
(36:24):
Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
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Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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