History

Monday’s Child is fair of face, but Tuesday’s child is full of Grace. There was never a time in the Duke of Grafton’s life when Rhett Alexander Lennox FitzRoy was unaware of his responsibilities. As the firstborn son of George FitzRoy, the 5th Duke of Grafton, and Maria Waldgrave, the daughter of the 2nd Viscount of Waldgrave, Rhett knew his father’s responsibilities would one day fall upon his shoulders. The events of Rhett’s childhood were inconsequential. His parents were very much in love, as attributed to their five beautiful and well-rounded children. Rhett never had time for formal schooling in his early years. His hours were divided between his father’s responsibilities and his mother’s interests. He and the others often came along with his father to play with the children of his peers while the men discussed politics, or they remained with their mother and entertained the children of her friends as they came to visit. Rhett would not trade his childhood for the world.

Later, he was educated at Harrow, and though he attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, with his brother Hugh, he was the one of the two to be pulled. The story told to anyone who would hear it is that Maria FitzRoy was too worried her boy was too tender-hearted for such a place and preferred him to finish a different course of study at home with private tutors. The truth was that the school requested the FitzRoys withdraw their son rather than suffer the embarrassment of his expulsion. What had he done worthy of expulsion? Either he was being insubordinate with his instructors, something a military school should have been equipped to handle, or he became a little too close with the nurse at the college. Or it could have been any number of things. The stories get more fantastic with each telling, and Rhett never argued with any of the tales of a potentially misspent youth.

Styled Viscount Ipswitch from 1870-1879, and later 6th Duke of Grafton from 1879 to present, Rhett had plenty of distraction from rumor. A year his junior, his brother Hugh finished top of his class and entered the Army as an officer. He married the same year he graduated. Not to be outdone, Rhett married Genevive Berkley, daughter of the Baron of Ashburton, in 1871. They had one son together in 1872, Augustus. Genevive often spent the winter and spring each year at Hyères for her failing health following the birth of their son. 1879 was a rough year for Rhett. His wife of eight years lost her battle with her prolonged illness in January, and by March, his father passed from consumption and his mother 2 weeks to the day later of a broken heart. Rhett found himself a widowed father of one and the guardian of his three sisters, Caroline, Elizabeth, and Lyra. It was much to take on by himself, but he managed. All three of his little sisters were married to honorable men of means or good houses by 1883. Though Rhett has courted a few times during and after that time, nothing has held.

Rhett has enjoyed the game of politics since childhood, shadowing his father at various meetings. He is bound and determined to win in politics and life. With his Whig-Liberal leanings, Rhett enjoys the dance of outwitting or at least out-talking his insufferable Tory peers. All may be fair in politics and war, but Rhett is known as the man in the House who will argue until both men are red in the face and their peers are equally outraged, then take them all out for drinks to show it was politics, nothing personal. It has earned him the respect of his peers, even if he might have their ire in the House. The only rule for drinks after “work” is no talking politics outside of the House. They can talk about other things but save the politics for the floor.

The most recent development in his life is his marriage to the love of his life. He has always had a soft spot in his heart for the former Dowager Hastings. The two eloped in a small private ceremony in the chapel at Euston Hall in the winter of 1887. By the winter of 1888, the crown, which should approve marriages of a certain level, had forgiven this overstep. The crown might have forgiven the two for stepping out of line, but more conservative peers and their families greet Grafton with disdain for his failure to adhere to societal expectations. These lords and ladies can hardly say much about it now that the crown has approved, but Rhett is aware of certain bridges he burned for following his heart.