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Summary and Analysis of
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey
The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
Based on the Book by the Countess of Carnarvon
The summary and analysis in this ebook are meant to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction. This ebook is not intended as a substitute for the work that it summarizes and analyzes, and it is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by the works author or publisher. Worth Books makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this ebook.
Contents
Context
Lady Fiona Carnarvon knows Highclere Castlethe inspiration for Downton Abbey and the location where some of the famous TV show was filmedbetter than almost anyone. She is the current Countess of Carnarvon, and the Castle has belonged to her husbands family since 1679. While writing Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey , Lady Fiona drew on photos, letters, household records, and journals from the family archives. Her book gives the inside information on what it was like behind the scenes of a place almost exactly like the fictional Downton Abbey.
Julian Fellowes, creator of the period drama Downton Abbey , is a good friend of the Carnarvons and has visited the Castle many times. Its clear he found ideas for his show not only in the Castle and its grounds, but also in the Carnarvon family history. The character of Lady Cora Crawley, played by Elizabeth McGovern, has several similarities to Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon, who lived in the time period during which Downtown Abbey is set. Most notably, each woman married a man considered above her social standing and each brought money vital for the upkeep of her husbands estate to the marriage. Furthermore, Lady Almina threw lavish parties and balls at the Castle until World War I began, and then she turned her home into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Downton Abbey went through the same transition .
While the Crawleys, their estate, and their story are fictional, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey paints a detailed picture of what life was like before, during, and after the war for a real family similar to one of televisions most intriguing aristocratic clans.
Overview
Almina Carnarvon was the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschildof international banking fameand Mrs. Marie Wombwell. Her lineage was an open secret in society, but when Almina was a debutante, Rothschild made it known that he would be settling a fortune on her when she wed. George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, had the responsibility of caring for Highclere Castle, but not the money with which to do it. He made an offer for Almina, who was pretty and charming as well as enormously rich, and they married in 1895.
Almina quickly proved herself to be a wife and hostess equal to any society lady. Within the first year of her marriage, she and the Earl entertained the Prince of Wales at the Castle, and Almina made the event a huge success. She poured money into modernizing the Castle, releasing the servants from some of their backbreaking work. In 1898, she gave birth to a boy nicknamed Porchy, the heir to the Castle.
In 1901, the Earl, who was often ill, was involved in a bad car accident from which he never fully recovered. Following a doctors advice, the couple began spending winters in Egypt so the Earl could avoid the cold. While there, the Earl continued to explore a passion of his ownEgyptian antiquities. Years later, this led to his discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb, which made him a national hero.
The outbreak of World War I changed everything. While caring for the Earl, Almina had come to realize she had a passion for nursing, and so she turned the Castle into a hospital for wounded soldiers. She used her almost unlimited amounts of both determination and money to give the soldiers the best possible care, hiring doctors who used the most advanced techniques and making sure they had the best equipment. When the war ended, she closed her hospital, but she never lost her devotion to healing. She would go on to open another hospital after the Earls death.
Summary
Prologue
Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the author of Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey and the 8th Countess of Carnarvon, has lived in Highclere Castle since 1999. In the years she has spent there, she has come to know the Castle inside and out. In her accountnot a history [nor] a biography nor a work of fictionLady Fiona uses historical documents to shed light on the life of Almina Carnarvon, wife of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who lived in the Castle during the Edwardian Era, specifically during World War I and its aftermath.
Need to Know: The life of Lady Almina, an heiress married to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, illuminates the time period surrounding the First World War, the same stretch of years covered by the popular television series Downton Abbey .
1: Pomp and Circumstance
Miss Almina Victoria Marie Alexandra Wombwell was the illegitimate daughter of well-known banker Alfred de Rothschild. Rothschild settled a vast fortune on Almina and arranged for her to marry George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and heir to Highclere Castle. Their wedding, paid for by Rothschild, was extravagant to a degree that some found garish or excessive. The bride and groom spent the first part of their honeymoon at Highclere Castle. Lord Carnarvon introduced his wife to the tenants and local families so she could familiarize herself with her new home.
Need to Know: Although the marriage between Almina and Lord Carnarvon was notable for the enormous difference in their social standings, it gave each of them something they desired. It propelled the socially marginal Almina into the center of high society as Countess Carnarvon, while at the same time wiping out Lord Carnarvons large debts and giving him enough money to care for the Castle.
2: Welcome to Highclere
Highclere Castle has a long history. Ancestors of the Earls of Carnarvon acquired the land in the late seventeenth century. The first Earl hired Capability Brown to design the grounds around the Elizabethan manor house. The house was later remodeled into a Georgian mansion. It was the third Earl who commissioned architect Sir Charles Barry to remodel and rebuild the house that still stands today: Highclere Castle.
