Consuelo Vanderbilt
| Consuelo Vanderbilt | |
|---|---|
c.1900–05
|
|
| Born | Consuelo Vanderbilt 2 March 1877 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | 6 December 1964 (aged 87) Southampton, Long Island, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | St Martin's Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire, England, UK |
| Spouse(s) |
The 9th Duke of Marlborough (m. 1895; annulled 1921) Jacques Balsan (m. 1921; d. 1956) |
| Issue |
The 10th Duke of Marlborough Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill |
| Parents |
William Kissam Vanderbilt Alva Erskine Smith |
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan (formerly, Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; born Consuelo Vanderbilt; 2 March 1877 – 6 December 1964) was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. Her marriage to His Grace Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough became an international emblem of the socially advantageous, but loveless, marriages common during the Gilded Age.
Born in New York City, she was the only daughter and eldest child of William Kissam Vanderbilt, a New York railroad millionaire, and his first wife, a Mobile, Alabama, belle and budding suffragist, Alva Erskine Smith (1853–1933, who later married Oliver Belmont). Her Spanish name was in honour of her godmother, Consuelo Yznaga (1853–1909), a half-Cuban, half-American socialite who created a social stir a year earlier when she married the fortune-hunting George, Viscount Mandeville, a union of Old World aristocracy and New World money that caused the groom's father, The 7th Duke of Manchester, to openly wonder if his son and heir had married a "Red Indian." Consuelo and her friends were the inspiration for Edith Wharton's unfinished novel The Buccaneers.
Consuelo Vanderbilt was largely dominated by her mother, who was determined that her daughter would make a great marriage like that of her famous namesake. In her autobiography, Consuelo Vanderbilt described how she was required to wear a steel rod, which ran down her spine and fastened around her waist and over her shoulders, to improve her posture. She was educated entirely at home by governesses and tutors and learned foreign languages at an early age. Her mother was a strict disciplinarian and whipped her with a riding crop for minor infractions. When, as a teenager, Consuelo objected to the clothing her mother had selected for her, Alva told her that "I do the thinking, you do as you are told."
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