View source for Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle

{{short description|English promoter of temperance and women's political rights (1845–1921)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
[[File:The Countess of Carlisle.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Howard made on 25 June 1870 by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and currently owned by her great-great-grandson [[George Howard, 13th Earl of Carlisle]]]]
'''Rosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle''' (''née'' '''Stanley'''; 20 February 1845 – 12 August 1921), known as '''the Radical Countess''', was an English aristocrat and activist for women's political rights and [[temperance movement]]. She was a member of the [[Stanley family|Stanley]] and [[Howard families|Howard]] families.
== Family ==
The Countess of Carlisle was born in 1845 at [[Grosvenor Crescent]], [[Belgravia]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Births. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000266/18450301/076/0005 |access-date=28 October 2024 |work=Yorkshire Gazette |date=1 March 1845 |page=5|url-access=subscription}}</ref> the tenth and last child of the Whig politician [[Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley|Hon. Edward Stanley]], and the [[women's education]] campaigner [[Henrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley|Hon. Henrietta Stanley]]. Her father was the eldest son of [[John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley]] and his wife [[Maria Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley|Lady Maria]], daughter of the [[John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield|Earl of Sheffield]]. In 1848, her father was raised to the peerage as [[Baron Eddisbury]] and two years later succeeded to his father's title, [[Baron Stanley of Alderley]].<ref>{{cite book |title= [[Burke's Peerage|Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood]]|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor-last= Mosley | editor-first = Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |pages= 3720–3721  |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}</ref>
She was educated at home by private tutors.<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|title=Howard, Rosalind Frances|last1=Fahey|first1=David M.|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/34022 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34022|accessdate=14 December 2012}}</ref> The Stanley family was exceptionally diverse in terms of religious convictions: Lord and Lady Stanley were [[high-church]] Anglicans, their eldest son [[Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley|Henry]] was a Muslim, their third daughter [[Maude Stanley|Maude]] was a [[low-church]] Anglican, their youngest son [[Algernon Stanley|Algernon]] became a Roman Catholic bishop, their penultimate daughter [[Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley|Kate]] leaned towards [[atheism]], while Rosalind herself identified as an agnostic.<ref name=odnb />
== Marriage ==
[[File:Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle.jpg|thumb|Rosalind Howard portrayed by her husband [[George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle|George]] in 1868.]]
On 4 October 1864, she married the painter [[George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle|George Howard]], who became an active [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal MP]] from 1879. She took part in election campaigns of her husband and father-in-law [[Charles Howard (British politician)|Charles]] by [[canvassing]], but refrained from speaking publicly, which was considered improper for a woman. In sharp contrast to her moderate husband, however, Howard soon joined the radical left, denouncing [[William Ewart Gladstone]]'s [[British occupation of Egypt|occupation of Egypt]] and campaigning for [[women's suffrage]]. She once responded to criticism of herself by saying: "Fanatics have done a lot of the world's work, and I don't mind being classed with the fanatics."<ref name=odnb />
In its early days, the marriage was close and filled with romance. George showered Rosalind with love letters and nude sketches, but the couple gradually drifted apart.<ref name=howard>{{citation|title=Sex and Suffrage: The Life & Times of Rosalind Howard|publisher=[[Castle Howard]]|url=http://www.castlehoward.co.uk/DB/Latest-News/Sex-and-Suffrage-The-Life-and-Times-of-Rosalind-Ho.html|accessdate=14 December 2012|date=12 July 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100912031251/http://www.castlehoward.co.uk/DB/Latest-News/Sex-and-Suffrage-The-Life-and-Times-of-Rosalind-Ho.html|archivedate=12 September 2010}}</ref> They shared a dislike for alcohol, but little else; when the Liberal Party split on the issue of Irish [[home rule]], which Rosalind supported, George decided to side with his cousin, the [[Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire|Duke of Devonshire]], and the [[Liberal Unionist Party]]. Due to their personal and political disagreements, the Howards spent most of their married life separated, with Rosalind preferring to stay at their country houses, [[Castle Howard]] and her favourite home, [[Naworth Castle]].<ref name=odnb />
== Views and causes ==
Despite being plagued by poor health, Howard made use of her organisational skills. She joined Liberal Party women's associations and the [[temperance movement]], involved herself in the management of the extensive family estates and took part in local government. She took the temperance pledge in 1881 and started requiring [[teetotalism]] from her tenants and closing down public houses on her estates the next year. Howard gained further credit in 1889 when her husband succeeded his uncle [[William George Howard, 8th Earl of Carlisle|William]] as 9th [[Earl of Carlisle]], thereby also inheriting the family fortune, and she became known as Countess of Carlisle. In 1891, a [[United Kingdom Alliance]] official convinced Lady Carlisle to speak on the subject of temperance at a drawing-room meeting of women. She soon became a successful platform speaker and vice-president of the United Kingdom Alliance, as well as president of the North of England Temperance League in 1892.<ref name=odnb />
In 1890, Lady Carlisle became a member of the [[Women's Liberal Federation]] and persuaded the organisation to support extending the suffrage to all women, but denounced [[Emmeline Pankhurst|Pankhurst]] suffragettes' violent methods. She presided over the federation from 1894 until 1902 and again from 1906 until 1915. She was elected president of the [[British Women's Temperance Association]] in 1903 and president of the [[World's Woman's Christian Temperance Association]] in 1906, retaining both offices until her death. Lady Carlisle disagreed with the policy of her predecessor, [[Lady Henry Somerset]], and [[Thomas Palmer Whittaker]], who, among other things, advocated compensating licence holders who lost their livelihoods due to temperance.<ref name=odnb />
The Countess of Carlisle allied herself with a small group of Liberal MPs, including her son [[Geoffrey Howard (Liberal politician)|Geoffrey]], her son-in-law [[Charles Henry Roberts]], her secretary [[Leifchild Leif-Jones, 1st Baron Rhayader|Leifchild Leif-Jones]] and her neighbour [[Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet, of Brayton|Sir Wilfrid Lawson]]. The [[International Organisation of Good Templars|Good Templars]] supported her policies, but she refused invitations to join the mostly working-class and lower middle-class organisation.
When Lady Carlisle's daughter, Lady Dorothy Georgiana Howard, was attending [[Girton College]], her closest college friends included archaeologist [[Gisela Richter]] and future candidate for Roman Catholic Sainthood [[Anna Abrikosova]]. During vacations, both were honored guests of Lady Carlisle at Castle Howard and Castle Naworth.<ref> Gisela M. Richter (1972), ''My Memoirs: Recollections of an Archaeologist's Life'', Published in [[Rome]], pages 8-9.</ref>
Although she had opposed the [[South African War]], Lady Carlisle firmly supported British resistance to the Germans in the [[First World War]]. The temperance movement and the Liberal Party had divided by then, leaving her without significant political influence. She supported [[H. H. Asquith]] despite his unwillingness to promote [[prohibition]] and opposed [[David Lloyd George]]'s proposal to nationalise the drink trade during wartime. Though she worked hard to improve the working-class people's living conditions, she was an élitist who resented their role in democracy.<ref name=odnb />
== Issue ==
[[File:Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle.jpg|thumb|right|[[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]]'s depiction of Howard on grey-green paper in 1870]]
The Carlisles had 11 children:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=Edmund |title=The Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage & Companionage of the British Empire for 1907 |date=1907 |publisher=Kelly's Directories |page=409 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jl1HAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA409 |access-date=16 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref>
* Lady Mary Henrietta Howard (20 July 1865 – 2 September 1956), who married [[George Gilbert Aimé Murray]], son of Sir [[Terence Aubrey Murray]], in 1889.
* [[Charles Howard, 10th Earl of Carlisle|Charles James Stanley Howard, 10th Earl of Carlisle]] (1867–1912), married Rhoda Ankaret L'Estrange, eldest daughter of Col. Paget Walter L'Estrange.
* Lady Cecilia Maude Howard (23 April 1868 - 6 May 1947), married [[Charles Henry Roberts]], the [[Under-Secretary of State for India]], in 1891.
* Hon. Hubert George Lyulph Howard (3 April 1871 – 2 September 1898), killed at the [[Battle of Omdurman]] while serving as a correspondent for ''[[The Times]]''<ref>{{cite news |title= Obituary: Lord Carlisle |work=[[The Times]] |publisher=The Times Digital Archive |date=18 April 1911 |page= 9}}</ref>
* Capt. Hon. Christopher Edward Howard (2 June 1873 – 1 September 1896), [[8th King's Royal Irish Hussars]], died of pneumonia at [[New Slains Castle|Slains Castle]] after contracting a cold at a shooting party<ref>{{cite news |title=The Late Captain C. E. Howard |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004285/18960905/050/0004 |access-date=16 October 2024 |work=[[Dumfries Courier]] |date=5 September 1896 |page=4|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* Hon. Oliver Howard {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA|FRGS}} (14 March 1875 – 20 September 1908), diplomat, who married Muriel Stephenson (1876–1952) in 1900. After his death of fever in [[Northern Nigeria]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blunt |first1=Wilfrid Scawen |author1-link=Wilfrid Scawen Blunt |title=My Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events 1888-1914 |date=1920 |publisher=Martin Secker |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I6FCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA223&dq=oliver+howard |access-date=16 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> where he was British resident,<ref>{{cite news |title= The Hon. Oliver Howard.|work=[[The Times]] |publisher=The Times Digital Archive |date=28 September 1908 |page=11 }}</ref> his widow married [[Arthur Meade, 5th Earl of Clanwilliam]].
* Hon. [[Geoffrey Howard (British politician)|Geoffrey William Algernon Howard]] (1877–1935), married Hon. Ethel Christian Methuen, eldest daughter of [[Paul Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen]].
* Lt. Hon. Michael Francis Stafford Howard (23 January 1880 – 9 September 1917), married Nora Hensman in 1911. He was killed in action in the First World War.{{sfn|Mosley|2003|p=689|ps=none}}
* Lady Dorothy Georgiana Howard (6 August 1881 – 14 September 1968), married [[Baron Henley|Francis Robert Eden, 6th Baron Henley]] (1877–1962) in 1913.
* Elizabeth Dacre Ethel Howard (12 March 1883 – 17 July 1883), died in infancy. There is a terra cotta effigy by [[Joseph Edgar Boehm|Sir Edgar Boehm]] on her tomb at [[Lanercost Priory]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Late Earl of Carlisle – Interment Amidst Ruins of Lanercost Abbey – A Simple Ceremony |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000748/19110421/120/0003 |access-date=16 October 2024 |work=Leeds Mercury |date=21 April 1911 |page=3|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* Lady Aurea Fredeswyde Howard (4 October 1884 – 15 January 1972), married Denyss Chamberlaine Wace in 1923; he was granted an annulment in 1926 on grounds that the marriage was never consummated.<ref>{{cite news |title=Marriage Annulled. Decree Against Lady Aurea Wace |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004848/19260521/209/0007 |access-date=16 October 2024 |work=Daily Express |date=21 May 1926 |page=7|url-access=subscription}}</ref> She married Maj. Thomas MacLeod [[OBE]] in 1928.
== Death and legacy ==
By the time Lord Carlisle died in 1911, Lady Carlisle's [[autocracy]] had estranged her from most of her children and friends. She strongly disapproved of her daughters' flirtatiousness and bitterly argued with her eldest son [[Charles Howard, 10th Earl of Carlisle|Charles]], a [[Tory]] politician. For several years, Lady Carlisle refused to speak to her daughter Lady Dorothy due to her marriage to the brewer [[Francis Henley, 6th Baron Henley|Francis Henley]] (afterwards [[Baron Henley]]).<ref name=odnb /> Lady Henley later claimed that her mother was privately a tyrant, despite appearing at her best in public.<ref name=odnb />
Her husband left most of the family property to her for life and instructed her to divide it among their children upon her death. The Countess of Carlisle died on 12 August 1921 at her home in [[Kensington Palace Gardens]], having survived seven of her children, and was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] four days later. Her ashes were interred alongside her husband's at [[Lanercost Priory]] on 18 August, with Geoffrey as the chief mourner. The surviving children found her [[last will and testament]] to be unfair and agreed to redivide the inheritance. Her daughter Lady Cecilia succeeded her as president of the British Women's Temperance Association.<ref name=odnb />
==In popular culture==
Lady Carlisle served as a model for Lady Britomart in [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s play ''[[Major Barbara (play)|Major Barbara]]''.<ref>Sidney P. Albert, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3204896 'In More Ways than One': Major Barbara's Debt to Gilbert Murray]," ''Educational Theatre Journal'', Vol. 20, No. 2. (May, 1968), pp. 123-140, and idem, "[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/annual_of_bernard_shaw_studies/v022/22.1albert.html From Murray's Mother-in-Law to Major Barbara: The Outside Story]," ''SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies'' 22 (2001), pp. 19-65.</ref>
==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Earl.svg|centre|150px]][[File:Rosalind Countess of Carlisle Impalement.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Arms of Howard of Carlisle (''Quarterly of six 1st Gules a bend between six crosses-crosslet finchée Argent on the bend an escutcheon Argent charged with a demi-lion pierced through the mouth with an arrow within a double tressure flory counterflory all Gules and above the escutcheon a mullet Sable for difference 2nd Gules three lions passant guardant Or and a label of three-points Argent 3rd Chequy Or and Azure 4th Gules a lion rampant Argent 5th Gules three escallops Argent 6th barry of eight Argent and Azure three chaplets of roses Proper'') impaling arms of Stanley of Alderley (''Argent on a bend Azure three stags’ heads cabossed Or a crescent for difference'').}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*Dorothy Henley (1958) ''Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle'' ([[Hogarth Press]])
*Charles Roberts (1962), ''The Radical Countess'' (Steel Bros)
==External links==
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp07139&rNo=1&role=art NPG 6206; Rosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle<!-- bot-generated title -->] at www.npg.org.uk Portrait held by National Portrait Gallery
* [http://ghgraham.org/text/rosalindhoward1845_obit.html Death of Rosalind, Lady Carlisle] - The Times, Saturday, 13 Aug 1921
{{s-start}}
{{s-npo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Lady Henry Somerset]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of the [[British Women's Temperance Association]]|years=1903–1921}}
{{s-aft|after=Lady Cecilia Roberts}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{Succession box
| title  = President of the [[Women's Liberal Federation]]
| years  = 1894–1902
| before = [[Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair|Countess of Aberdeen]]
| after  = [[Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair|Countess of Aberdeen]]
}}
{{Succession box
| title  = President of the [[Women's Liberal Federation]]
| years  = 1906–1915
| before = [[Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair|Countess of Aberdeen]]
| after  = [[Laura McLaren, Baroness Aberconway|Laura McLaren]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlisle, Rosalind Howard, Countess of}}
[[Category:1845 births]]
[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:Daughters of barons]]
[[Category:English countesses|Carlisle]]
[[Category:English suffragists]]
[[Category:British temperance activists]]
[[Category:Women of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:Howard family (English aristocracy)|Rosalind]]
[[Category:Stanley family|Rosalind]]
[[Category:British Women's Temperance Association people]]
[[Category:Burials in Cumbria]]