Georgiana Caroline Fox, 1st Baroness Holland, of Holland (27 March 1723 – 24 July 1774), known as Lady Caroline Lennox before 1744 and as Lady Caroline Fox from 1744 to 1762, was the eldest of the Lennox Sisters

Lennox Sisters

The Lennox sisters were the daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond in the Peerage of England and 2nd Duke of Lennox in the Peerage of Scotland, and Lady Sarah Cadogan , daughter of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan.-Ancestry:...

, immortalised in Stella Tillyard

Stella Tillyard

Stella Tillyard is a British author and historian born in 1957, best known for the best-selling Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 which was made into a BBC Miniseries in 1999.-From academic to novelist:...

's book Aristocrats, and the television series based on it.

The Lennox sisters were daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond

Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond

The 2nd Duke of Richmond has been described as early cricket's greatest patron. Although he had played cricket as a boy, his real involvement began after he succeeded to the dukedom...

, a legitimate descendant of an illegitimate son of Charles II of England

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

. In 1744, Lady Caroline eloped with Henry Fox

Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland

Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP, PC was a leading British politician of the 18th century. He identified primarily with the Whig faction...

, a politician who was eighteen years her senior. Though her parents disapproved of the marriage, it proved a very happy one. The couple had four sons, including the great Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...

 and the general Henry Edward Fox

Henry Edward Fox

General Henry Edward Fox was a British Army general. He also served for a brief spell as Governor of Minorca.-Family:...

. Their home, Holland House, Kensington, was a social and political gathering place.

Lady Caroline's favorite sister, Emily Lennox, married and went to live in Ireland in 1747. In 1750 and 1751, the Lennox sisters' parents died in quick succession, leaving three younger daughters, Louisa, Sarah, and Cecilia, aged eight, six, and one. In his will, the 2nd Duke of Richmond, remembering Lady Caroline's reckless elopement, passed over her and instructed that his three youngest daughters be entrusted to the care of their sister Emily and her husband, James FitzGerald, 20th Earl of Kildare

James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster

Lieutenant-General James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, etc. PC , styled Lord Offaly until 1744 and known as The Earl of Kildare between 1744 and 1761 and as The Marquess of Kildare between 1761 and 1766, was an Irish nobleman, soldier and politician.-Background:Leinster was the son of Robert...

. Lady Caroline resented this slight but hoped to redeem herself by presenting her younger sisters at court and helping them make good matches. The Kildares' allegations that the Foxes were responsible for Lady Sarah Lennox

Lady Sarah Lennox

Lady Sarah Lennox was the most notorious of the famous Lennox Sisters, daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond.-Early life:...

's embarrassing rejection by the young King George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

, as well as her disastrous marriage to Sir Charles Bunbury

Sir Charles Bunbury, 6th Baronet

Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, 6th Baronet , was a British politician and the first husband of Lady Sarah Lennox.Bunbury was the eldest son of Reverend Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet, Vicar of Mildenhall, Suffolk, and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Vere Graham. The caricaturist Henry Bunbury was his...

 soon afterwards, provoked a quarrel between the sisters that was not healed until shortly before Lady Caroline's death.

On 3 May 1762, Caroline was created Baroness Holland of Holland in the Peerage of Great Britain

Peerage of Great Britain

The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain after the Act of Union 1707 but before the Act of Union 1800...

. Her husband was created Baron Holland of Foxley less than a year later, on 17 April 1763. Caroline's spoiled sons, especially Stephen, the eldest, caused her much embarrassment and distress by gambling and falling into debt. She was already suffering from a mysterious and painful illness when her husband, who had suffered a stroke, died. She followed within a short time.

Ancestry

Trivia

In 1999, a 6-part miniseries based on the lives of Caroline Lennox and her sisters aired in the U.K. It was called Aristocrats

Aristocrats (TV mini-series)

Aristocrats is a 1999 Television series, based on the biography by Stella Tillyard. The series consists of six episodes of 50 minutes each and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC, starting on 22 June 1999...

. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204082/maindetails