Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Baroness Craven, Later Princess Berkeley, Magravine of Brandenburg-Anspach by Ozias HumphreyNew Book Alert: Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist, European by Julia Gasper; Wonderful Feminist Biography of a Great Independent Woman Forgotten By History
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: One of the things that I have enjoyed the most about being an Editor/Book Reviewer is learning about different historical people and events, many of which I was previously unfamiliar. I recently reviewed
L’Agent Double, Kit Sergeant's novel which featured the infamous Mata Hari and two other female spies of WWI that were just as important but have been overlooked by much of history: Marthe Cnockeart and Alouette Richer.
I just reviewed
Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly’s brilliant novel about Caroline Ferriday and the Ravensbruck Rabbits, a group of Polish women who had received dangerous experimental surgeries during the Holocaust.
For another website, I am reviewing a book about William Cooper, an activist who fought for the rights of Australia's First Nations People also known as the Aborigines.
Another interesting colorful figure I just learned about was Elizabeth Baroness Craven, Princess Berkeley Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1750-1828). Craven was an English noblewoman who had a scandalous and unhappy marriage that ended in divorce. However, she was also an accomplished poet, playwright, translator, travel writer and a forward thinking independent woman who championed women’s causes like education both at home and abroad.
Julia Gasper tells of Craven's fascinating life in her biography,
Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist, European. Gasper gives us a full picture of a woman who challenged society's restrictions by living according to her own terms and standards.
Gasper makes it clear from the first chapter that Craven was someone who had to be independent and willing to challenge the standards that she was under. She was born Elizabeth Berkeley, the sixth child and second only surviving daughter of Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley and his wife, Lady Berkeley. They were hoping for a second son, the “spare” to add to the “heir,” and could barely contain their disappointment. (A second son, George was born three years later.) In fact, when she was born, Elizabeth was so small and underweight that her mother considered suffocating her, except her great-aunt interfered.
Craven’s mother had no interest in her children particularly her younger daughter. She often neglected and ignored them. Because of this, Craven found maternal warmth in her godmother, great-aunt, and a governess, the warmth that she lacked from her mother. The lack of maternal feeling gave Craven the independence that she needed to survive on her own and challenge the standards held by the women of her mother's day.
Craven had a passionate nature that she inherited from her parents. Before he married, her father had an affair with a married woman that ended when her husband confronted her in public.
Craven's father died when she was five and her mother remarried a man who many thought was an opportunist. Lady Berkeley subsequently gave birth to two more daughters, but her second husband doubted that he fathered the younger of the two. Craven's sister and brothers also had relationships that were the causes of much gossip. These scandalous affairs foreshadowed into Craven's later life and unhappy marriage.
Elizabeth had a sound mind and body that came from strict learning and practice.
She was educated in French, Italian, dancing, drawing and playing the harp. She was educated by the standards of a young girl of her class, but she had a determination to learn more than what she had been given. She was a voracious reader with a passion for history and philosophy and a strong mind for business and finances which helped her aid her first and second husband in their expenditures. This education helped her learn and understand a world beyond her limited role as an English noblewoman.
She was also given cold baths and health food to toughen her up and keep her figure. When she grew, she participated in physical activity such as horseback and eating health foods. This strenuous physical regimen also played a large part of her adulthood when she observed other women's flaccid often weary nature and reasoned that it may have developed from increased dependence in their relationships.
Craven's marriage to William Craven already seemed like an attraction of opposites. She was from a wealthy noble family; he was a clergyman's son but the heir to a distant noble relative. She was educated and learned in many fields; he was described as “a plain and dull fellow whose education at Rugby and Oxford taught him very little.” She liked reading books, art, and music; he liked horse and dog racing, hunting, and reading newspapers. She was well-mannered, polite, and observant; he was uncouth, abrasive, and bad tempered. Their marriage was not going to last and it didn't.
The marriage resulted in the birth of 7 children but there were several incidents of physical and emotional abuse largely from William to Craven. There were also repeated accusations of infidelity from both sides. Finally after 13 years of marriage, she and William divorced. While the divorce gave her freedom and independence, it also cost Craven dearly. She gave up most of her homes and custody of all but one of her children.
She was bandied about and made the subject of gossip and rumor mongering such as that she had married another man or that she was really pregnant. Ironically, most of their closest friends and acquaintances preferred her because of her friendly outgoing nature, over William's brutish often intoxicated attitude.
Of course, once Craven did something about her unhappiness she was then derided. Her situation reflected the double standards many had at the time where they sympathized with a woman who was unhappily married but vilified her once she got out of the marriage.
Craven was a strong intellectual woman and like many intellectual women of her day, she hosted salons where she invited the best authors, philosophers, scientists and players during the Enlightenment Age. However, unlike many other women, Gasper revealed that Craven was not content to just invite them and be the hostess. She wanted to be one of the intellectuals. This idea of producing her own work and many of her views such as abolishing slavery and creating stronger women's rights put her at odds with her peers, particularly the bluestockings, the older educated sophisticated women of Craven's class.
Craven wrote many works and like many creative and talented people found inspiration in the world around her. Many of her works reflected her philosophical and political views and also provided commentary on her unhappy marriage.
She was the subject of various poems which recounted her witty and learned nature in contrast to William’s boorish dullness. Her first published works particularly the poem, “Lines Addressed to the Rev. Charles Jenner” were love letters to the lovers that she had during her marriage. One in particular was Rev. Charles Jenner, a minister and academic who wrote plays and comic verse. Their affair ended long before Craven's divorce happened but it was Jenner who encouraged Craven to publish her writing.
Craven also translated and wrote a number of plays, many of which questioned the role of women in society. One play,
The Miniature Picture, seems like a typical mistaken identity romantic romp similar to Shakespeare's comedies like
The Merchant of Venice or
As You Like It. But buried inside is a conversation between a man and a woman disguised as a man who discuss marriage and divorce. The protagonist, played by Craven herself in the original performance, asks if the man prefers “marriage based on fear” and inquires if the man would prefer to hurt his wife to the point that she fears him rather than see the marriage end amicably. This was a subject important to Craven because of her own troubled marriage to William.
Another play that reflected her views was her translation of the Moliere play,
The Statue Feast, about the notorious rake, Don Juan. Besides retelling the play, Craven added a prologue that discussed war in France. More importantly, she added an epilogue which invited the audience to imagine England being governed by a Parliamentary of women. While the suggestion was clearly made in a tongue-in-cheek manner (there would be “a tax on gossip and slander.”), this epilogue revealed that Craven wanted to break free from the constraints held by male-dominated restrictions and law.
By far Craven's most important feminist work occurred after her divorce. This was
Letters from a Peeress of England to Her Eldest Son. Written as a series of letters to her son, William, Craven described her unhappy marriage and protested the legal status of wives under English law. It blatantly attacked the view that women should be under complete control of her husband. Craven warned her son to look at his wife as an equal and not as property. This was a strong and bold statement for that day.
It is a shame that Lady Elizabeth Craven is not as well known as other early feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft or Sojourner Truth.
Letters from a Peeress of England, could be considered a landmark feminist work along the lines of Wollstonecraft’s
A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Abigail Adam’s “Remember the Ladies” letter, or Truth's “And Arn't I a Woman?” speech.
After her divorce, Craven traveled and acquired a reputation as a travel writer. Most of the book is spent describing Craven's travels and are brilliantly recaptured with all of the sites, experiences, and friendships and romances Craven made. When Craven and her son, Keppel visited Genoa, Italy they saw first-hand the cruelty of slavery. While Craven protested the practice in theory, her time in Genoa allowed her to be up close to the people suffering under the rule of heartless masters. She became more vocal in her hatred for the practice.
Many of Craven's travels allowed her to observe the treatment of women in other countries and they did not always leave a favorable impression on her. She was impressed by Catherine the Great 's leadership in Russia, particularly how she opened doors to education for all women. She also found the Empress to be a gracious and welcoming host.
However, Craven's writing also engaged in some English snobbery. She originally thought that the Russian feudal system was no better than slavery.
But she thought that the peasants were better cared for and healthier than slaves so she reasoned that they must have been treated well. Knowing that the Russian monarchy ended over one hundred years later and much of it caused by the cruel treatment that landowners held over the peasants, Craven's words would make many Readers cringe. However, it also served to remind us that even though Craven was a woman who was ahead of her time in many ways, she was also a woman of her time. Many of her opinions often were colored by her own life and experiences and observations of what she saw in front of her.
Another moment that illustrated this was Craven's visit to a Turkish bath house in Greece. Craven engaged in body shaming by describing the women as fat and said that the sight “would have put (her) in an ill-humor with (her) sex in a bath for ages.”
Her opinion was incredibly vain and modern Readers would consider it insensitive and abusive. However, Craven was not ashamed strictly because of their appearance. What upset her was the treatment of women that caused their appearance. She realized that these women lived a passive, captive existence under their husbands, lovers, fathers and so on. This existence did not allow the women much of a chance to go outside and engage in physical activity.
Craven moved to Germany where she eventually married the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. However, she still remained outspoken about issues that were important to her. She tried to start a school for girls but backed down over objections from the public. She fostered and eventually adopted two girls who were distant relatives.
She also composed her travel experiences into a book, A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople and wrote more plays,one of which
Nourjad, had a Turkish setting inspired by her visit. Another play,
La Philosophe Moderne was a satire of the French Revolution.
After her marriage to the Margrave, Craven and the Margrave returned to England where she hosted and performed in plays.
Craven also got involved in the unhappy marriage between Prince George of Wales, the future King George IV, and his wife, Princess Caroline who he was accused of treating horribly. George married Caroline under protest only so his debts could be paid and continued to abuse, shun, and flaunt other lovers in front of her.
Craven recognized the pattern of her own troubled first marriage and defended Caroline in public. Craven even wrote a play called
The Princess of Georgia: An Opera in Two Acts which has the theme of marriage for duty vs. love and took a stance in defending the real-life princess on whom the story was based.
Later in life, Craven traveled again and wrote her memoirs, which of course were considered scandalous because they frankly discussed her extramarital affairs. She spent her remaining days in declining health and being cared for by her youngest son, Keppel.
Lady Elizabeth Craven managed to survive the gossip about her pastand even gained a second life in the process.
Lady Elizabeth Craven, Writer, Feminist, European is a wonderful book about an amazing woman. Hopefully, this book will bring Craven's story out to the public and she will be looked at as one of the most prominent Feminists of her day.
