Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
The Viscount Lyons | |
---|---|
Succeeded by | The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava |
Viceroy and Governor-General of India | |
In office 12 April 1876 – 8 June 1880 | |
Monarch | Queen Victoria |
Preceded by | The Earl of Northbrook |
Succeeded by | The Marquess of Ripon |
Personal details | |
Born | 8 November 1831 |
Died | 24 November 1891 | (aged 60)
Nationality | Rosina Doyle Wheeler |
Education | Harrow School |
Alma mater | University of Bonn |
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton,
His tenure as Viceroy was controversial for its ruthlessness in both domestic and foreign affairs, especially for his handling of the
Lytton was a protégé of
Childhood and education
Lytton was the son of the novelists
Lytton's mother, who lost access to her children, satirised his father in her 1839 novel Cheveley, or the Man of Honour. His father subsequently had his mother placed under restraint, as a consequence of an assertion of her insanity, which provoked public outcry and her liberation a few weeks later. His mother chronicled this episode in her memoirs.[3][4]
After being taught at home for a while, he was educated in schools in Twickenham and Brighton and thence Harrow,[5] and at the University of Bonn.[1]
Diplomatic career
Lytton entered the Diplomatic Service in 1849, when aged 18, when he was appointed as attaché to his uncle,
In 1862, Lytton was promoted to Second Secretary in Vienna, but his success in Belgrade made
Viceroy of India (1876–1880)
Midway on his journey [to India] he met, by prearrangement, in Egypt, the
Calcutta he was sworn in as Governor General and Viceroy, and on 1 January 1877, surrounded by all the Princes of Hindustan, he presided at a spectacular ceremony on the plains of Delhi, which marked the Proclamation of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, as Empress of India. After this the Queen conferred upon him the honor of the Grand Cross of the civil division of the Order of the Bath. In 1879 an attempt was made to assassinate Lord Lytton, but he escaped uninjured. The principal event of his viceroyalty was the Afghan war. (The New York Times, 1891)[6]
After turning down an appointment as governor of Madras,
Lytton's son-in-law, Sir Edwin Lutyens, planned and designed New Delhi.
Indian famine
Lord Lytton began serving
Lord Lytton's implementation of the relief efforts of the colonial administration has been blamed for increasing the severity of the famine.
Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1878–1880
Britain was deeply concerned throughout the 1870s about Russian attempts to increase its influence in Afghanistan, which provided a Central Asian
The war was seen at the time as an ignominious but barely acceptable end to the "Great Game", closing a long chapter of conflict with the Russian Empire without even a proxy engagement. The pyrrhic victory of British arms in India was a quiet embarrassment which played a small but critical role in the nascent scramble for Africa; in this way, Lytton and his war helped shape the contours of the 20th century in dramatic and unexpected ways. Lytton resigned at the same time as the Conservative government. He was the last Viceroy of India to govern an open frontier.
Commemoration
A permanent exhibition in Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, is dedicated to his diplomatic service in India. There is a monument dedicated in his name at Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, India, domestically called Delhi Gate.[9]
Domestic politics
In 1880, Lytton resigned his Viceroyalty at the same time that
Ambassador to Paris: 1887–1891
Lytton was Ambassador to France from 1887 to 1891. During the second half of the 1880s, before his appointment as Ambassador in 1887, Lytton served as Secretary to the Ambassador to Paris,
Lord Lytton died in Paris on 24 November 1891, where he was given the rare honour of a state funeral. His body was then brought back for interment in the private family mausoleum in Knebworth Park.
There is also a memorial to him in St Paul's Cathedral, London.[15]
Writings as "Owen Meredith"
When Lytton was twenty-five years old, he published in London a volume of poems under the name of Owen Meredith.[1] He went on to publish several other volumes under the same name. The most popular is Lucile, a story in verse published in 1860. His poetry was extremely popular and critically commended in his own day. He was a great experimenter with form. His best work is beautiful, and much of it is of a melancholy nature, as this short extract from a poem called "A Soul's Loss" shows, where the poet bids farewell to a lover who has betrayed him:
Child, I have no lips to chide thee.
Take the blessing of a heart
(Never more to beat beside thee!)
Which in blessing breaks. Depart.
Farewell! I that deified thee
Dare not question what thou art.
Lytton underesteemed his poetic ability: in his Chronicles and Characters (1868), the poor response to which distressed him, Lytton states, 'Talk not of genius baffled. Genius is master of man./Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can'.[1] However, Lytton's poetic ability was highly esteemed by other literary personalities of the day, and Oscar Wilde dedicated his play Lady Windermere's Fan to him.
Lytton's publications included:[6]
- Clytemnestra, The Earl's Return, The Artist and Other Poems (1855)[1]
- The Wanderer (1859), a Byron-esque lyric of Continental adventures that was popular on its release[1]
- Lucile (1860). Lytton was accused of plagiarizing George Sand's novel Lavinia for the story.[16][17]
- Serbski Pesme (1861). Plagiarized from a French translation of Serbian poems.[18][19]
- The Ring of Ainasis (1863)
- Fables in Song (1874)
- Speeches of Edward Lord Lytton with some of his Political Writings, Hitherto unpublished, and a Prefactory Memoir by His Son (1874)
- The Life Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton (1883)
- Glenaveril (1885)
- After Paradise, or Legends of Exile (1887)
- King Poppy: A Story Without End (partially composed in early 1870s: only first published in 1892),[1] an allegorical romance in blank verse that was Lytton's favourite of his verse romances[1]
Based on the French translation, in 1868 he published a drama titled Orval, or the Fool of Time which has been inspired by Krasiński's The Undivine Comedy to the point it has been discussed in scholarly literature as an example of a "rough translation",[20] paraphrase[21] or even plagiarism.[22]
Further reading
There is a detailed biography of Lytton by A. B. Harlan (1946).[1]
Marriage and children
On 4 October 1864 Lytton married Edith Villiers. She was the daughter of Edward Ernest Villiers (1806–1843) and Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell and the granddaughter of George Villiers.[23]
They had at least seven children:
- Edward Rowland John Bulwer-Lytton (1865–1871)
- Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton (1867–1942).[23] Married Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, brother of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.
- Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton (1869–1923)[23]
- Hon. Henry Meredith Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1872–1874)
- Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton (1874–1964). Married Edwin Lutyens. Associate of Krishnamurti
- Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton (1876–1947)[23]
- Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton (1879–1951)[23]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Birch, Dinah (2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature; Seventh Edition. OUP. p. 614.
- ^ Birch, Dinah (2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature; Seventh Edition. OUP. p. 385.
- ^ Lady Lytton (1880). A Blighted Life. London: The London Publishing Office. Retrieved 28 November 2009. Online text at wikisource.org
- ^ Devey, Louisa (1887). Life of Rosina, Lady Lytton, with Numerous Extracts from her Ms. Autobiography and Other Original Documents, published in vindication of her memory. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co. Retrieved 28 November 2009. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
- ^ a b c d Stephen, Herbert (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 186–187. . In
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The New York Times, 25 November 1891, Wednesday, Death of Lord Lytton – A Sudden Attack of Heart Disease in Paris – No Time for Assistance – His Long Career as a Diplomat in England's Service – His Literary Work as Owen Meredith
- ISBN 1-85984-739-0p. 7
- ^ David Washbrook, 'Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer-, first earl of Lytton (1831–1891)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 29 September 2008
- ^ Negi, Dhir (July 2019). "Lytton Memorial". google.com/maps. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ Balfour, Lady Betty, ed. (1906). Personal & Literary Letters of Robert First Earl of Lytton. Vol. 2 of 2 (2nd ed.). London: Longmans, Green & Co. pp. 225–226. Retrieved 27 November 2009. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
- ^ Balfour, Lady Betty (1906) p.234
- ^ Balfour, Lady Betty (1906) pp.236–238
- ^ a b Jenkins, Brian. Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War. McGill-Queen’s Press, 2014.
- ^ Balfour, Lady Betty (1906) pp. 329–320
- Sinclair, W.p. 462: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
- ^ Bulwer-Lytton, V.A.G.R. (1913). The Life of Edward Bulwer: First Lord Lytton. Vol. 2. Macmillan and Company. p. 392.
- ^ "Mr. Owen Meredith's "Lucile"". The Literary Gazette. New Series. 140 (2300). London: 201–204. 2 March 1861.
- ^ "Owen Meredith". The Illustrated American. 9: 165. 12 December 1891.
- ^ "Robert Bulwer Lytton". The Brownings' Correspondence.
- ISBN 978-1-107-46104-8.
- ISBN 978-1-884964-36-7.
- ISSN 2080-0851.
- ^ a b c d e David Washbrook, 'Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer-, first earl of Lytton (1831–1891)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 2 Nov 2015
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Lytton
- Works by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton at Internet Archive
- Works by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The LUCILE Project an academic effort to recover the publishing history of Lucile (which went through at least 2000 editions by nearly 100 publishers).
- His profile in ancestry.com