Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey

Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey

Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey (born June 16, 1875 in Paris , † March 14, 1905 in Monte-Carlo ), known under the courtesy title of Lord Paget until 1880 , between 1880 and 1898 as Earl of Uxbridge , was a British Nobleman and was already considered one of the most eccentric members of the British aristocracy during his lifetime .

Life

Henry Paget was the eldest son of Henry Paget, 4th Marquess of Anglesey (1835-1898), and great-grandson of the important Field Marshal Henry Paget (1768-1854), who had been raised to Marquess of Anglesey for his service at the Battle of Waterloo . Henry Paget's mother was Blanche Mary Boyd, the second wife of the 4th Marquess of Anglesey. At that time there were also rumors that the French actor Benoît Constant Coquelin was the actual father of Henry Paget. These rumors were compounded when Blanche committed suicide just two years after the birth of her son and little Henry Paget stayed in Paris for no apparent reason, where Coquelin's sister was taking care of him as a nanny.

Plas Newydd on the island of Anglesey in North Wales about 1900

At the age of eight, Henry Paget came to Plas Newydd , the ancestral home of the Paget family on Anglesey in North Wales . There he was looked after by only one nanny, had no siblings as playmates and received little attention from his father, who was considered a difficult character. First, Henry Paget followed the traditional path of a privileged young man of his time, attended Eton College in the English county of Berkshire and later served as a lieutenant in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers , a regiment of the British Army .

At the beginning of 1898, his family arranged a marriage with his 17-year-old cousin Lilian Florence Maud Chetwynd (1876–1962). At that time, Henry Paget was already showing the first eccentric features. He wore numerous rings on his fingers and used make-up to lighten his complexion . The couple spent their honeymoon in Paris . When Lilian was admiring the gems in a jeweler's window, he went in and bought the entire display. Every night he insisted that she cover her naked body with these pieces of jewelry and was content to marvel at the arrangement. Two years later, the marriage was annulled for persistent non-execution.

Lilian Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey

In the autumn of 1898 the 4th Marquess of Anglesey died, leaving his 23-year-old son a fortune which included the family estates in Staffordshire , Dorset , Derbyshire and Anglesey , which then raised about £ 100,000 annually, which is now about 11,000,000 £ equals. The 5th Marquess, called Toppy by his friends , became one of the richest men in Great Britain. One of his first acts was to replace his father's hunting dogs with lap dogs, each of which was dressed in a silk coat embroidered with the family crest. Henry Paget was known for walking the streets of Mayfair in London wearing white poodles adorned with pink ribbons. In addition, he bought jewelry and furs and organized extravagant parties.

Over the next few years he devoted himself to his passion for stage performances and converted the Chapel of Plas Newydd into a theater with 150 seats, which he referred to as The Gaiety . For his first production, Aladdin , he hired professional actors from London at excessive fees and lit a long path to the theater with torches to show the audience from the nearby area the way with free entry. Other productions included a. Sinbad and Red Riding Hood . He took part in his performances himself and showed sensational dance interludes, including butterfly and snake dances, which were inspired by the American dancer Loïe Fuller . The costumes for his appearances were set with real jewels and made of precious fabrics.

Theater The Gaiety

Finally, Henry Paget toured the UK and Europe with his productions for three years. About 50 people and trucks with luggage, costumes and props accompanied the marquess in his limousine. Were shown English Pantomimes and pieces of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde . After the performances, the marquess, who was enthusiastic about the art of photography, handed out photographs showing him in various costumes. With particular preference he dressed up as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine . He also continued to spend large sums of money on jewelry, horses, carriages, automobiles and yachts. By then, he had already begun mortgaging lands to finance his lifestyle.

In 1904, Henry Paget went bankrupt after accumulating debts of approximately £ half a million, now around £ 50,000,000. To pay off the creditors, a large auction was held that lasted 40 days. Items on offer included opulent clothing, including several hundred pairs of shoes, extravagant trinkets and jewels, all of which fetched £ 80,000, which is roughly £ 9,000,000 today. A total of around 17,000 objects were auctioned. Most of his creditors got their money back and the marquess was awarded an annual sum of £ 3,000.

At the end of 1904, Henry Paget moved to France and stayed in a grand hotel near Dinard in Brittany . He hoped to be able to resume his theater productions in a few years. He later moved to the Côte d'Azur and stayed at the Hotel Royale in Monte-Carlo . In the spring of 1905 he fell ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 29 in the presence of his ex-wife Lilian. His remains were brought back to Anglesey and buried in Llanedwen, a place near Plas Newydd. His ex-wife Lilian married John Francis Gray Gilliat in 1909, a banker with whom they had three children. The title of Marquess of Anglesey went to his cousin Charles Henry Alexander Paget (1885-1947), who destroyed all papers and remaining personal belongings of his predecessor and had the theater rebuilt in a chapel.

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reception

Photography by John Wickens

Even during his lifetime, Henry Paget gained a reputation for a lavish lifestyle. His performances caused irritation in the society of the Victorian era , so that he was ridiculed as The Dancing Marquess . In particular, the 1904 auction of his private items received extensive coverage in many newspapers, including the Daily Mail and Evening Post . His objects were considered to be the most wonderful collection of personal clothing ever sold. Apparently his reputation reached overseas, because in 1905 the Chicago Daily Tribune published an obituary for the deceased marquess.

Due to his extravagant lifestyle, his penchant for cross-dressing and the annulment of his marriage, it was soon suspected that Henry Paget was homosexual. However, there were no sexual scandals during his lifetime. Neither are there any indications of love affairs with people of the same or opposite sex. A final assessment is made more difficult by the destruction of his papers after his death. Today it is believed that Henry Paget was a classic narcissist . A narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by an increased desire for recognition and admiration and a lack of empathy and the ability to develop relationships.

More recently, the life of the 5th Marquess of Anglesey has again received increased attention. Recently discovered photographs of Henry Paget and his entourage were shown in an exhibition on Plas Newydd. A photo by John Wickens (1865–1936), on which the marquess's costume and posture appear surprisingly modern, is particularly popular. The playwright and composer Seiriol Davis wrote a musical entitled How To Win Against History about the life of the 5th Marquess, which in 2016 Edinburgh for the premiere came. The play attracted a lot of media attention in Great Britain, received several awards and was shown on various stages in England and Wales between 2016 and 2017. Seiriol Davis also published a book about the genesis and content of the piece.

Web links

Commons : Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey on thepeerage.com
• Peerage: ANGLESEY at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
• Eat your heart out Elton, here's the most eccentric English aristocrat ever on dailymail.co.uk
• The most gloriously eccentric aristo of all! How the 5th Marquess of Anglesey had car exhausts that sprayed perfume, covered his naked bride in jewels and spent £ 43m on fancy Dress on dailymail.co.uk
• The life of history's most eccentric aristocrat who lived fast and died young after frittering away £ 43million on fancy Dress on dailypost.co.uk
• Would you trust this man with your fortune? on theguardian.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Viv Gardner: Would you trust this man with your fortune? In: theguardian.com. March 26, 2020, accessed on May 22, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Forgotten 5th Marquess of Anglesey photos 'cause stir'. In: bbc.com. April 23, 2018, accessed May 11, 2019 .  
3. ↑ Web site Seiriol Davies. Retrieved May 11, 2019 .  
4. ↑ Seiriol Davies: How To Win Against History. Oberon Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781786822406 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry Paget	Marquess of Anglesey 1898-1905	Charles Paget