Wyndham, Hon. William Frederick
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
- Title
- Wyndham, Hon. William Frederick
- Full Text of Entry
-
(1767 - 1828), yst. s. of 2nd E. of Egremont; served in the Coldstream Gds - 1784; m. 1 1784 Frances Harford (d. 1822), illeg. dau. of 6th B. Baltimore [I], 2 after 1822 Julia Konstancia, wid. of Count Spyterki; env.extra. 1794 - 9 and min.plen. 1799 - 1807 to the Tuscan Court.
1794 - 1801 Florence (20 Mar. 1794 - 12 Apr. 1799), with visits to Turin (Nov. 1795), Rome and Naples (Aug. 1796); Leghorn ( - 12 Apr. 1799), Palermo (Apr. - Jun.), Florence (Jul. 1799 - ), Ancona ( - Feb. 1801) [Vienna]
When Wyndham was appointed envoy extraordinary to the Tuscan Court in Florence in succession to the unsatisfactory John, Lord Hervey, he had already the reputation of being a difficult and radical character.1 'Ce petit polisson, ce petit jacobin', Lady Webster called him, observing how all the English in Brussels had been pleased to ignore him in 1792. Soon after his arrival at Florence on 20 March 17942 John Carr wrote that Wyndham had 'had an affair with a Florentine Count [Carletti] on account of his Jacobinical principles, which tho' it is likely to end without bloodshed has injured him in the opinion of the people of the place'.3 Wyndham had, however, been instructed always to use 'conciliatory but firm' language; Tuscany was traditionally a neutral state, but France and England were tempted to win her active support.
In June 1796 the French invaded Leghorn, a British trading station, but not before Wyndham had contrived for the British merchants to sail off to Elba with much of their stock. In August 1796 Wyndham went to Naples in a vain attempt to raise Neapolitan support against the French; his dash through Rome on 16 August was noticed by J.M. Gandy, as was his return through Rome on the 27th4 (but on 10 September the Diario Ordinario reported that 'Lord Frederico Nyndham, Ministro d'Inghilterra alla Corte Toscana' had arrived in Rome from Florence on 1 September and after staying a few days had left for Naples). In May 1797 the French withdrew from Leghorn and the British returned.
The French again invaded in January 1799, but withdrew after a week. The final occupation came in March, at which point Wyndham withdrew, embarking from Leghorn on 12 April for Palermo. In June there was an armed counter-revolution which started in Arezzo, and Wyndham returned to Tuscany to follow its progress. On 9 July 1799 the insurgents made their triumphal entry into Florence, led by Lorenzo Mari, an officer in the Grand Ducal Guards, followed by his wife and Wyndham, who was then her lover. In May 1800 the French finally overran Tuscany and Wyndham made his escape from Ancona, joining the exiled Tuscan government in Vienna until his retirement in 1807.
Wyndham's private life had also been eventful. He had come to Florence in 1794 with his first wife Frances and their eight-year-old son (George Francis, 1785 - 1845, who became the 4th Earl of Egremont), and a second son was born in Florence in July 1794. But by August 1795 the Wyndhams had decided to part, Lady Plymouth then observing that Wyndham was diminishing his establishment to that of a bachelor, and that they had been 'much estranged from each other'.5 Mrs Wyndham, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Baltimore, had already had an unsuccessful first marriage. Lady Webster, herself unhappily married, became her confidante and in 1794 - 5 they shared a somewhat emancipated and exciting life together.6 In October Lord Amherst 'fell in love with' both of them; and at Lucca Wyndham came to have 'a serious eclat' with his wife. According to Lady Webster, Mrs Wyndham then 'behaved romantically, and what in a novel would be called feelingly delicate, but like a very silly person for her worldly concerns. She is determined to separate and quit him'. At Lucca again in 1795 Wyndham ignored Lady Webster; in November Mrs Wyndham was travelling to Turin, followed, or pursued, by Lord Wycombe with whom she was living in Turin in February 1796 (though Wycombe was by then 'quite tired of her').7
By this time however Alessandrina Mari was Wyndham's mistress. She was to be made a Baroness of the Austrian Empire for her part in the uprising of 1799, and for his part Wyndham was elevated to British minister plenipotentiary. A second mistress was Julia Konstancia (widow of the Polish Count Spyterki), by whom he had a son (later a Major General in the Indian army) and whom he was to marry after the death of his first wife in 1822.
1. See B. Moloney, English Misc., 19[1968]:281 - 93, and H.A. Wyndham, Family History 1688 - 1837, 226 - 80. 2. See Horn, 2:171 - 2. 3. Carr letters MSS (31 May 1794). 4. Gandy letters MSS. 5. Attingham MSS (30 Aug. 1795). 6. See Holland Jnl., 1:131, 133, 135 - 6. 7. Attingham MSS (Ldy. Berwick, 23 Feb. 1796).