PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT EXPECTED AND GOT DAISY GREVILLE COUNTESS OF WARWICK AS A MISTRESS

Charlie Beresford had one of those "long suffering" wives - Mina.

Like many women of their set, Mina expected her husband to stay with her, no matter what.  But Charlie, was reported in the  London gossip columns as "Bewitched" by Daisy Greville. "Within three years of Daisy's marriage, they were lovers, much to poor Mina's consternation."

Excerpts Pages 148-149 : "Daisy had fallen spectacularly in love, despite the fact that Charlie was fifteen years older. Charlie Beresford was a celebrity, with is irrepressible high spirits, his war record, and the charm that preceded hi into the room; it was said you heard the voice before you saw the man.  Their affair unfolded with the momentum of an Elinor Glyn story, and with a conclusion more astonishing than anything that the romantic novelist could have imagined.

As we have seen, Daisy was accustomed to getting her own way. So it was that one morning, while the Beresfords were staying at Easton Lodge, Daisy strode into Mina's bedroom and told her that she was planning to desert Brookie abandoned their three children, and elope with Charlie.  Mina's response to this extraordinary disclosure was measured.  Mustering all the hauteur of which she was capable, Mina retorted that "the circumstances of the affair" were already well known to society, and that she had no intention of relinquishing her husband. More significantly, Mina said that she was not prepared to sacrifice her husband's career on such an insane scheme and she was taking Charlie home immediately.

If Daisy was devastated by this outcome, it came as something of a relief to Charlie Beresford.  Charlie's infatuation with Daisy was fading fast, and any lingering sentiments he may have had were destroyed by Mina's allegations that Daisy was "not content with his attentions alone." Charlie seemed anxious to move on and consign his relationship with Daisy to the past."

Daisy did not give up, after all she was in love.  In 1886 Mina was pregnant. Daisy raged. She felt betrayed by Charlie. She went against the rule that affairs in the Marlborough set were all right so long as lovers were discreet.  That her behavior had been noted in the gossip columns went against that rule but, worse, she sent a furious letter to Charlie. She wanted Charlie to leave Mina and join her on the Riviera, France. And Daisy also claimed that he was the father of her oldest daughter, Marjorie.

Charlie was not the one to open that letter and read it.  Mina was. She went to a top lawyer in London with it.  He needed to keep whatever machinations occurred out of court. In other words the lawyer was going to have to solicit an agreement, not a divorce. Mina was actually showing more gumption and power than any ordinary woman at that time dare have. She was fighting for her marriage which was, of course, entwinned with her wealth and reputation, her place in high society.

Daisy demanded the letter back...

Excerpt Page 150-151

"Infuriated by the machinations of these irritating wives and pettifogging lawyers who stood in her way, and facing the prospect of ruin if the matter became public, Daisy realized that there was only one person she could turn to. Only one man had the power, the contacts, and the chivalry to come to the aid of this damsel in distress; Bertie, the Prince of Wales. Daisy was by now on good terms with Bertie, dined regularly with him, and had met him at Ascot and Goodwood. More significantly \, Daisy was aware that Bertie was sympathetic and wise, concerning affairs of the heart.  Confident that Bertie would act on her behalf, Daisy wrote to the prince and asked if he would see her.

Bertie responded immediately. ...

... "As she sat in front of his desk, Daisy found that Bertie was looking at her "in a way all women understand."

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DAISY FORGET ME NOT

 

FRANCES EVELYN MAYNARD WAS NICKNAMED DAISY AS A BEAUTIFUL GIRL : AS A MARRIED WOMAN SHE ENTERED THE DANCE OF ROMANTIC AFFAIRS : SHE FELL IN LOVE WITH LORD CHARLES BERESFORD

In the passages below, please note that the future King Edward VII, is known as Prince Edward Albert - the Prince of Wales. Daisy's husband, Francis Greville, Lord Brooke (later the 5th Earl of Warwick) is known as Brookie. Bertie is the nickname that Queen Victoria called her husband, Prince Albert.

Daisy errored when she went and fell in love with Lord Charles Beresford.

She was a tomboy, but she grew into her femininity and was a sought after bride. She had personal riches, beauty, spirit, and loved to hunt but thought of fishing and shooting as dull. Soon, she and her husband would be socializing with the Royals, the Peerage, and soon she would find her husband, Francis Greville, Lord Brooke (later the 5th Earl of Warwick) dull too.

From the Chapter of Catherine Arnold's book called The Heart Has Its Reasons: Page 146-147

"From the start of her married life, Daisy regularly witnessed the courtly dance of romantic affairs played out against the backdrops of grand country houses, and longed to be part of it, regardless of Brookie's feelings.  It seems to have been a certain acceptance on Brookie's part that Daisy was a force of nature who made her own rules....."

....."It was in this milieu, as a married woman, that Daisy saw exactly how her contemporaries conducted their affairs.  Indeed, it appeared to Daisy that an affair was almost de rigueur, as long as both parties remained discreet.  Unfortunately, discretion was one quality of which Daisy was almost entirely devoid.

Determined to have a little fun of her own, and realizing that country house weekends were the ideal opportunity to bag a lover, Daisy began to cast around for a suitable man for the role. But finding the right individual proved to be more difficult than Daisy expected....

Daisy witnessed one man she was interested in going off with Lillie Langtry... And she did meat Prince Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales, at various society events such as balls and had danced with him and talked with him, but he was involved with Mrs. Cornwallis-West at the time.

"Having provided Brookie with three children, Daisy succeeded in sticking to her marriage vows, despite her headstrong and impulsive character, until the fateful day when she met Lord Charles Beresford. A close friend of the Prince of Wales, Charlie Beresford was the practical joker who had turned off the oxygen in Louis Battenberg's cabin while he was belowdecks "inspecting the facilities" with Lillie Langtry."

Excerpt page 148 : "Lord Charles Beresford (1848-1919) was Berties' former navel aide-de-camp, a decorated war hero, and fourth lord of the admiralty...  By the age of thirty-seven, Charlie Beresford was as outrageous as ever, much to the discomfort of his wife, Mina. Older than Charlie, and physically unprepossessing, Mina had resorted to cosmetics to improve her appearance.  This included false eyelashes, one of which was ripped off by a child who mistook it for a butterfly.  Exposing a nasty streak, Daisy took great pleasure in humiliating Mina....."

Mina would soon enough fight to keep her marriage and prove to be an excellent enemy to Daisy. To do so, to create peace and help Mina preserve her marriage, Prince Edward Albert himself would get involved. However, there would be a price to be paid by Daisy, her husband, and Charlie and his wife, Mina, too.

C 2026 Mistress Manifesto All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

DAISY GREVILLE - COUNTESS OF WARWICK : SOCIALIST PHILANTHROPIST MISTRESS OF PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT : SHE FOUGHT FOR WOMEN and THE POOR

1861-1938

A 1905 oil painting by John Singer Sargent of

 FRANCES EVELYN MAYNARD 

who became DAISY GREVILLE - COUNTESS OF WARWICK 

with her son who was fathered by Joseph Laycock, Maynard Greville. 

Daisy had five children, only one who was fathered by her husband.

Image from Wikimedia public domain

I chose this book by author Catherine Arnold to learn about  DAISY GREVILLE - COUNTESS OF WARWICK. It serves as the primary reference for this month's posts. Let's talk about how it is that Daisy got involved with Edward.

The closest friends of Prince Edward Albert, the son of Queen Victoria, were called the Marlborough Set. These were rich people - upper class members of society in Britain - who often married for reasons beyond love, such as the preservation of estates and keeping the bloodlines within a small group of high-born people for the purposes of breeding. Often, once a wife had provided an heir or heirs, she was free to pursue affairs, so long as she was discreet. Everyone who played understood these rules. Generally, once married, any children a woman gave birth to were considered her husband's and he was to financially support those children. Therefore, today's DNA tests might prove that there were many a child not related to both its legal parents.

Queen Victoria was at her wits end with Edward Albert, her eldest son due to become King, and even blamed the stress he caused with his pleasure-seeking lifestyle for the early death of her beloved husband, Albert. 

Prince Edward was 59 before he became King and, though he attended to duty while in wait for the throne, what he really loved was seeking pleasure - wine, women, song, and the horses - the races and betting. Fun for Edward as a youth included mock duels with soda siphons, party games and high-jinks. It has been said, in general, that he may have been taken to Paris and introduced to sexuality at fourteen in a brothel. His parents were aware of his doings - at least enough to be scandalized. His mother thought that getting him married young would resolve the problem of Edward's promiscuity.

Known for arranging good marriages for her many children, Queen Victoria was instrumental in attracting Princess Alexandra of Denmark, known as "Alix," to marry Edward. Alix was 16 when the agreement was reached and they married in 1863 at Saint George's Chapel in Windsor. He was 21 and she was about eighteen. Though the couple had a "honeymoon period," Alix experienced one pregnancy after another. From the time she married until she was 26, when she stopped, the woman had six children. The Princess who would eventually became Queen had certainly done her duty. She was thought of as a 'long suffering" wife who knew her husband could never be faithful to her. 

If the Queen and the Royals knew or not, history has brought us the names of some of the women that the Prince who would become King Edward VII had as lovers and mistresses. Before he married, he had low-born English mistress and early in his marital years he had low-born French mistress. Among the more famous, he saw Cora Pearl, Catherine "Skittles" Walters, Giula "La Barucci" Beneni, Lady Susan Vane Tempest, Jennie Jerome Churchill,  Sarah Bernhardt, and many other married society ladies. Having a mistress or having an affair did not mean that the Prince was momentarily loyal or faithful. He was not a serial monogamist. He could be married, have mistresses, have affairs, and visit prostitutes too. As I see it, he was a Royal sex addict.

Edward was sometimes in danger of being named in rare but extremely scandalous divorce threats and proceedings and was known to try to intervene between wives, husbands, and lawyers. When it comes to Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, this would be the case.

Daisy's story will continue here in the next posts but, for now, let me say that the woman who started out life as Frances Evelyn Maynard in 1861 had many brothers to have adventures with. Her love of the outdoors where she could run wild and own a variety of animals including horses considered, she was thought to be a tomboy. Her mother had married Charles Maynard, the son of Henry Maynard, 3rd Viscount, who was quite athletic and spirited but also twenty years older. 

Still, when I began to read Catharine Arnold's account of how Daisy had sought out a extra-marital romance and fallen in love with a man other than her husband, I thought that her life might have all gone a different way. It seems that Prince Edward took full advantage of the fact that he had interceded with her on an earlier romantic dilemma to establish a relationship with her, expecting her gratitude...

Daisy was born during the winter in which London society was mourning the recently deceased Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, and was significantly younger than Price Edward Albert. Her family was considered respectable members of the Peerage and had some famous ancestors such as Nell Gywn, a mistress of King Charles II and the Duke of Albans.

Her father had died three years after she was born, leaving their mother single with two daughters to raise. It was a shock to her mother to learn that her husband and willed his entire estate to daughter Daisy!  Daisy was a beautiful rich girl who was sought as a wife and had the expectation to marry up. Queen Victoria summoned her and wished to matchmake her with her youngest son, Leopold, but she got out of it with the help of Leopold. She married Francis Greville, Lord Brooke (later the 5th Earl of Warwick) in 1881 at Westminster Abbey. The Queen and Royals attended the wedding. But it seems Daisy was soon enough disappointed that her husband, and the life he provided her, while substantial, was too predictable and dull. 

Once married, the Countess of Warwick, Daisy Greville, who bore three children with her husband - the paternity is controversial - became a playing member of the Marlborough set. She also threw dazzling parties - for which she spent lavishly on gowns, jewelry, and all the rest.. Yet, she famously changed her point of view about life and began to help the poor, becoming a controversial socialist and personally going broke!

C 2026 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

You may be interested in reading posts about some of the women mentioned in this opening post.  I'll be including a bit about Lillie Langtry in this month's posts.

February 2025

LILLIE LANGTRY : THREE YEARS AS THE MISTRESS OF SEX ADDICT EDWARD ALBERT, PRINCE OF WALES IN THE 1870'S : SHE FOUND HER WAY FORWARD IN MODELING AND ACTING

July  2012     

CORA PEARL

BROUGHT OUT NAKED ON A SILVER DISH, LINED WITH VIOLETS

August 2024

CATHERINE WALTERS : IRISH-ENGLISH HORSEWOMAN WHO EVEN IMPRESSED THE FRENCH and RETIRED WELL

November 2025

SARAH BERNHARDT : DAUGHTER OF COURTESAN YOULE VAN HARD : TRANSFORMED HERSELF INTO A WORLD FAMOUS ACTRESS AND A NATIONAL ICON OF FRANCE KNOWN FOR HER OWN "SCANDALOUS" LIFE

 

BEFORE WE BEGIN : THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY IS ON MY MIND

We will begin the month of April shortly: 

Last February 2025, I featured Lilly Langtry, a mistress of King Edward VII (when he was still Prince Edward) as Mistress of the Month.  My primary source for that month's posts came from Ian Graham's book titled "Scarlet Women" in which she was one of the women Graham wrote about. A couple months ago I went to a library where there were several books on King Edward VII (Great Britain) and his 'love life'. I took them home and read them.

In the last several months, partly because of the Jeffrey Epstein Sex Trafficking Scandal, which has only gotten more scandalous since the release of the Epstein Files, I've been thinking about the former Prince Andrew (stripped of his titles, honorariums, and all opportunities to work for Great Britain as a member of the Royal Family, now simply Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) and being raised as the second to the throne. I've been thinking of Sarah Ferguson, Andrew's wife and best friend since their divorce years ago. Both have been essentially banished and removed. 

I featured Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and back in September of 2023. I found her memoir unexpectedly well written and interesting.

I've been reading news articles and listening to media coverage about the Royal Family and the issues they must deal with. I sometimes listen to the YouTube station which is owned by and stars Lady Colin Campbell, who I featured here in June of 2024. (Lady Colin Campbell is also a book author, famous for publishing the first book about Princess Diana and Prince Charles and their marriage.)

I don't agree with all her opinions but, as one of her son's said recently, she is a character and perceptive and often right.

Lady Colin Campbell discussed the reality of wives and mistresses in her family and among the British settled in Jamaica in her memoir about growing up in "Daughter of Narcissus".

She doesn't much like Prince Harry or his wife, Princess Meghan, and she once defended Prince Andrew, until she learned he was lying. And, as you most recent readers know, I devoted January of this year to Virginia Guiffre, and her book about being an Epstein sex trafficked survivor. Prince Andrew is in deep trouble as a result of his involvement with the evil Epstein.

I wonder, if it's true that, perhaps, the ex-Prince Andrew and his, as I see it, sex addiction which got him in such terrible trouble, is an inherited trait. Is it genetic? Nature versus nurture? Does it have something to do with being born into high status and riches, with what would seem to be extreme opportunity, but also strong expectations and limitations on what he might do with his blessed life?  Prince Harry was long a second to the throne just as Andrew was, and he has established a life very different than what was expected of him but, though I sense he is happy in his marriage and with his children, he is condemned for abandoning those expectations that he would be a helpmate to his older brother, future King Prince William. But let's face it. Harry certainly did some running around and partying and had other relationships while remaining unmarried until he settled down with his wife, however controversial they are. (Lady Colin Campbell is just one British media person who heavily condemns him and his wife. Frankly, I don't know how it is that the both of them are still standing because it seems there is nothing either of them can do without international criticism.)

These days the privacy granted pre-Internet of persons of high birth and high achievement by the media is gone. Back in the day, the British tabloids might have called Andrew "Randy Andy" but the details were generally kept from us. What emerged were well researched books about these interesting persons who, it could be said, had the world in their hands.

Of all the British princes and kings who have had mistresses, perhaps it is true that Edward Albert, Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII, was among King's who had mistresses, the British Royal most known to be a sex addict. Lillie Langtry was not his first lover, but his first well known and accepted (i.e. official) mistress after his marriage. Said to have been introduced to sex very young - perhaps fourteen - in Paris, the young prince, well before his marriage at twenty-one, was reportedly avid for sex and also went to prostitutes. Though he had some work before he became King and more after, he went about his official duties distracted by and intent on pleasure.

I will be focused on this monarch, who was Queen Elizabeth II's great grandfather, and his mistresses over the next months. I hope you will join in our discovery!

Missy

POLLINATOR

 

LADY ANNABEL GOLDSMITH PASSED AT AGE 91 : A VERY FULL LIFE

Here are some obituaries about Lady Annabel Goldsmith that are quite interesting including photographs. 

BBC NEWS : LADY ANNABEL GOLDSMITH DIES AT 91

Excerpt: Her youngest child Ben said she was "quite simply irreplaceable".

He added: "We are bereft, not for her – because her life has been extraordinary and complete - but for us, because of the immense hole in our lives she leaves behind."

Mr. Goldsmith said: "I spoke to her every day for 45 years, she truly had my back and we loved each other very much. I will miss her terribly."

THE GUARDIAN : LADY ANNABEL GOLDSMITH OBITUARY

Excerpt: Goldsmith, who has died aged 91, was herself a celebrity, accessible to journalists and happy to explain about the men in her life at a time when talking openly about being a mistress was still vaguely scandalous. Having married Birley as a teenager in 1954, she began a relationship with the financier Sir James Goldsmith 10 years later, having discovered that her first husband was a serial adulterer – as, it turned out, was her second.

By the time they married in 1978, she had two children with him and would go on to have a third, to add to three with Birley. He then embarked on further affairs, and remarked: “If you marry your mistress, you create a vacancy.”

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WHAT MISTRESS OF THE MONTH ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS BLOG?

I know that the more hits a subject or post gets, the higher up in the ranking, and sometimes that just isn't fair because I spend a lot of time researching for newer subjects and posts too.

I wonder.  WHICH MISTRESS ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS BLOG?

Missy