Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class Rosina Bulwer-Lytton’s Blighted Life (Part 1) About this episode After a difficult childhood, Rosina Bulwer-Lytton landed in a marriage that quickly turned chaotic and stressful, and then became abusive. Part one covers the period of her life up to their separation.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:04 Tracy V. Wilson? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argentix. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs, and quick hellos are what
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2:18 Tracy V. Wilson? Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.
2:28 Tracy V. Wilson? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:32 Holly Frey? And I'm Holly Frey.
2:34 Tracy V. Wilson? If you're a regular listener to the show and you listen to the episodes in order, you have heard me talk about getting into a topic that was unwieldy. And so I dropped it immediately to instead do an episode on electrocardiograms. Now we have come to the unwieldy topic. For a very long time, novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton has been lingering on my shortlist. His 1830 novel, Paul Clifford, started with the words, "It was a dark and stormy night." Believe it or not, he was not the first person ever to publish that phrase, but afterward it became widely used and reused and satirized and lampooned. And it even spawned
3:16 Tracy V. Wilson? the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for Bad First Sentences, which was held at San Jose State University for 42 years. I really knew zero about Edward Bulwer-Lytton besides that one thing. And so I was just kind of like, that guy, what was his deal? There was, there was on the shortlist. More recently, I was trying to figure out if I had access to enough information to do an episode on Bianca Capello, who was the 16th century Grand Duchess Consort of Tuscany. Her life is described as full of scandal. Horace Walpole, who we covered on the show back in October, was talking about a painting of her when
4:01 Tracy V. Wilson? he coined the word serendipity. So that quest led me to Edward Bulwer-Lytton's wife, Rosina, who wrote a historical novel about Bianca Capello in 1843. And it did not take long for Rosina to take her husband's place on my shortlist and then to move up to the top to do an episode. Edward is still a big part of this episode, though, because it is really about their marriage and their separation. According to Rosina, Edward was abusive and he definitely had multiple affairs. And because married women in England really had no legal status independently of their husband, Rosina's options in this were incredibly
4:45 Tracy V. Wilson? limited. She wrote that novel because she was trying to make ends meet in the wake of their separation.
4:53 Tracy V. Wilson? This turned into a two parter. Today's episode is about Rosina's early life and the early years of her relationship with Edward, up to their separation. Again, that story is going to involve abuse. And then on Wednesday, we will talk about their decades of living in separation. And Rosina's very embittered writing about it.
5:16 Holly Frey? Rosina Doyle Wheeler was born on November 4th, 1802, in County Limerick, Ireland. She was the daughter of Frances Massey Wheeler and Anna Doyle Wheeler. Frances and Anna had six children together, but only two of them survived their infancy, Rosina and her older sister Henrietta, who was born in 1801.
5:38 Tracy V. Wilson? Anna Wheeler was known to be clever, witty, well-read, and extremely beautiful. She was self-educated, and that education included things like French philosophy and the writing of Mary Wollstonecraft. Anna became an advocate for cooperative socialism and for women's rights. And she also co-authored a work called Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political and Hence in Civil and Domestic Slavery, in reply to a paragraph of Mr. Mills' celebrated article on government. Her co-author in this piece was William Thompson.
6:19 Holly Frey? Anna and William didn't write this until 1825, when Rosina was already an adult. But it does help illustrate the political and legal position of women in the UK at this point, and the kinds of opinions Rosina would have been exposed to through her mother. The paragraph that Anna and William were responding to was written by James Mill in an essay on government that was printed in Encyclopedia Britannica. That paragraph read, quote, "One thing is pretty clear, that all those individuals whose interests are indisputably included in those of other individuals may be struck off from political rights without inconvenience. In this light may be viewed all children up to a certain age, whose interests are
7:04 Holly Frey? involved in those of their parents. In this light, women may also be regarded, the interest of almost all of whom is involved either in that of their fathers, or in that of their husbands."
7:16 Tracy V. Wilson? The appeal, co-written by Anna Wheeler and William Thompson, calls this paragraph "offensive and antisocial." The introduction to the appeal is framed as a letter from Thompson to Wheeler, and it read in part, quote, "You look forward, as I do, to a state of society very different from that which now exists, in which the effort of all is to outwit, supplant, and snatch from each other; where interest is systematically opposed to duty; where the so-called system of morals is little more than a mass of hypocrisy preached by knaves, unpracticed by them, to keep their slaves, male as well as female, in blind, uninquiring
7:57 Tracy V. Wilson? obedience; and where the whole bodily fabric is kept together by fear and blood. You look forward to a better aspect of society, where the principle of benevolence shall supersede that of fear; where restless and anxious individual competition shall give place to mutual cooperation and joint possession; where individuals in large numbers, male and female, forming voluntary associations, shall become a mutual guarantee to each other for the supply of all useful wants; and form an unsalaried and uninsolvent insurance company against all insurable casualties; where perfect freedom of opinion and perfect equality
8:41 Tracy V. Wilson? will reign amongst the cooperators; and where the children of all will be equally educated and provided for by the whole, even these children longer the slaves of individual caprices."
8:54 Holly Frey? This piece noted that, quote, "The interests of men and women are so involved in each other that political power possessed by the one must be impartially used for the benefit of both." But it also made a rhetorical argument that if political power had to rest only with one sex, that it should be women, because women were the weaker party and would not be able to overlook the needs of men the way men were able to overlook the needs of women.
9:22 Tracy V. Wilson? Anna Wheeler's thoughts on marriage were partially informed by her own marriage. She and Francis got married when they were both still in their teens. Her family, when they found out about this relationship, had proposed to send her to London, not necessarily to separate them, but just to give her more time to grow up and to learn her own mind before getting married. But that suggestion had just led her to double down on her insistence that they get married immediately.
9:52 Holly Frey? Francis seems to have been outwardly amiable, but he also drank excessively, and his behavior could be threatening. According to Rosina's account, when she was born, her mother's attendants were terrified to tell Francis that she was a girl because he had been so adamant about wanting a son that they were legitimately scared of what his reaction would be.
10:14 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1812, Anna left Francis, and she took Henrietta and Rosina with her. They went to Guernsey, where Anna's uncle, Sir John Doyle, was lieutenant governor. He had been something of a surrogate father to Anna after her own father's death. Mother and daughters moved into rooms at the government house, which was a lot more lavish than where they'd been living in Kilross, Ireland. The girls had a French governess and an assortment of tutors, and Rosina described the atmosphere of the house as, quote, "sort of perpetual saturnalia that was allowed unchecked to go on." She also developed a flair for mimicry, imitating their governess and their tutors
10:56 Tracy V. Wilson? and various guests who came to the government house.
11:00 Holly Frey? While this was a financially comfortable situation, Rosina still found these years difficult. Henrietta was clearly their mother's favorite, and Rosina later wrote, quote, "I soon became that most miserable of created beings, the neglected sister of a favorite and favored child. Not that I envied Henrietta for being loved, indulged, and privileged on all occasions, for it was impossible not to love one so gentle, so gifted, and so good. I thought it was a matter of course that everyone must do so. Still, I did long for a little of my mother's love."
11:38 Tracy V. Wilson? The family left Guernsey in 1816, and we'll get to that after a sponsor break.
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13:53 Holly Frey? We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends.
14:35 Holly Frey? Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
14:56 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jess A. have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy
15:41 Tracy V. Wilson? only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
16:02 Tracy V. Wilson? Sir John Doyle left office as Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey in 1816. So at that point, the family no longer had a place at the government house. Rosina and Henrietta were sent to a private school in Kensington in London while their mother went to France. There, Anna made connections to socialists, activists, and philosophers, and she was nicknamed "The Goddess of Reason." She started to call for a redistribution of wealth that would allow women to live independently of men.
16:33 Holly Frey? In 1820, Rosina's father Francis died, and her older sister Henrietta inherited his property in Ireland. Their mother started supplementing her income with writing, lecturing, and translating work from French.
16:48 Tracy V. Wilson? There's not a lot of detail about the next few years of Rosina's life, but in October of 1825, she met Edward George Earl Lytton-Bowler. He's known as Edward Bowler Lytton today, but that is a name change that happened a little later. Edward was freshly returned from France. He had his hair in ringlets, and he was carrying a cane and decked out in French attire that wouldn't become fashionable in England for another few years. Rosina described him as, quote, "unmistakably gentlemanlike," and he had a reputation for being simultaneously a dandy and an intellectual.
17:28 Holly Frey? Edward's acquaintances included novelist Lady Caroline Lamb, who had become famous in part for her relationship with George Gordon Lord Byron, who had died the previous year. She's the person who described Lord Byron as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." According to Rosina's notations on Edward's letters later on, at one point Caroline told her, quote, "Don't let Edward Bowler hunt you down. They are a bad set."
17:56 Tracy V. Wilson? After a meeting at a social event, Rosina and Edward started corresponding. For the most part, Edward's letters are the ones that we have today. There are some published collections of Rosina's letters, but they're not widely available in the United States, and they are mostly letters to other people. In his letters, Edward seems deeply enamored.
18:19 Tracy V. Wilson? Here's an example of something that he wrote to Rosina. Quote, "I have twice begun to write and twice I have destroyed what I have written. The same restraint which oppressed me in speaking seems to operate also upon this method of uttering the feelings you have inspired. No matter, their nature you have discovered. Love, admiration, passion are not the less deeply felt for being imperfectly expressed. The trembling of the voice, the embarrassment of manner, the difficulty of expression which diminished the eloquence do justice at least to the reality of feeling. From the first moment I saw you, I was attracted towards you.
18:59 Tracy V. Wilson? The sentiments you inspired carried me back to years of more fresh and unsullied remembrance. They had no place among the ordinary attachments which the world had more lately afforded me. I could not define their nature. I could not reason them away."
19:17 Holly Frey? In another letter later on, he wrote, "Oh, my dear Rose, where shall I find words to express my love for you? Your kiss still dwells upon my lips. My hand still thrills beneath your touch and your breath still lingers on my remembrance, fraught indeed with more treasures than an India sea." Eventually, he started addressing his letters with endearments like, "My dearest Rose and darlingest poodle," which I must admit I find kind of fun, and affecting a sort of baby talk writing style, like writing the word "you" as "oo," two "o's."
19:53 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah, as, as they got into the baby talk, which is also the way that you might talk to like a puppy that you're feeling very affectionately toward. I found them, I was having like the vicarious embarrassment
20:07 Holly Frey? Yeah.
20:07 Tracy V. Wilson? response to reading them. They, they, a number of people have described them in words like embarrassing and cringey. Edward, though, also wrote a lot about his mother, Elizabeth Warburton Lytton, and his fears that she would not approve of his relationship with Rosina. His father, William Earl Bowler, had died when he was only four. And by then Edward's older brothers had been sent away to school. So it was just him and his mom. His mother treated him almost like an only child. He was her favorite and she doted on him and gave him an extravagant allowance. But that allowance was totally at her prerogative.
20:47 Tracy V. Wilson? The only money he was actually legally guaranteed was 200 pounds a year from his father's will. So Edward was really afraid of his mother cutting him off.
20:59 Holly Frey? Rosina's sister Henrietta died in May of 1826, and Rosina inherited their father's property in Ireland at that point. One of Edward's letters around this time attempted to console her, both about her sister's death and the state of her relationship with her mother. Quote, "Your alienation from your sister seems formerly to have given you much pain. Now that very fact makes your consolation. Your separation from your mother threw you into a situation which, to say the least, was disadvantageous and unpleasant. But had you gone with her to Paris, it is more than probable that we should never have met. Let me trust that the last event will not be the most unfortunate in your life."
21:44 Tracy V. Wilson? Sometime in the months surrounding her sister's death, Rosina and Edward became engaged, and his letters to her at this point still sounded just besotted. Here's one, quote, "My darling, darling, love and poodle. The more I think of you, the more I love you. I dote upon you even to madness. Your beauty so singularly perfect, your kind, noble, warm heart, your temper so feeling yet so subdued. Your generous and devoted love, which my unworthiness, not my reason, ever questions, all impress themselves upon my mind. The deeper in proportion to the consideration they receive. I see other women, I turn from them, wearied and disgusted,
22:28 Tracy V. Wilson? because I compare them with you. All that this world offers only seems to me weary, stale, and unprofitable compared with one recollection of you."
22:41 Holly Frey? Edward's mother did not know about the engagement, but she and Rosina had met and it was clear to Edward that his mother did not approve of Rosina in general. Estimates of the value of the property that Rosina had inherited in Ireland are really all over the place, but it seems like it might have given her an income of about 300 pounds a year. So she wasn't penniless, but she definitely wasn't wealthy or even financially comfortable. She was also Irish and outspoken and at six months older than Edward, too old in his mother's opinion. Rosina was also extremely beautiful and even that was somehow suspect.
23:24 Tracy V. Wilson? In September of 1826, Edward wrote Rosina a letter in which he talked about his ambitions for the future. His mother wanted him to distinguish himself and he thought that if he did that, then she could have no objection to anybody that he might want to marry. He thought he might earn this distinction by becoming a member of Parliament, but there were income and property ownership requirements for MPs that he did not meet. So he thought he might make up the difference by an income requirements by writing. So that became the plan. He would earn enough money through writing to become eligible to be an MP. He would get elected and then he would disclose
24:08 Tracy V. Wilson? his engagement to his mother and then they would get married.
24:12 Holly Frey? In my head, there's a cartoon where he has a flow chart of how his life is going to work.
24:17 Tracy V. Wilson? Does kind of seem that way.
24:18 Holly Frey? And so much of it depends on things he cannot control working out exactly as he plans.
24:24 Tracy V. Wilson? Right.
24:25 Holly Frey? In October of 1826, Edward told his mother about the engagement, even though he had not yet sold his first novel. This did not go well, and Edward described a letter his mother had written him this way, quote, "There is not in this letter one kind expression to redeem its want of almost human consideration for my feelings." And it ends with saying that if I marry, I should have not her consent, but her curse.
24:54 Tracy V. Wilson? The next several months of Edward and Rosina's relationship sound chaotic and stressful. Edward was trying to write a book, and Rosina was reading his drafts and offering her opinions while also doing some writing work of her own. Knowledge of his mother's disapproval seems to just underpin everything that they did. Edward's mother also allegedly sent people to Ireland to investigate Rosina's family there. The couple kept setting dates for a wedding and then postponing it, and at least three times, Rosina called the engagement off entirely, but then they resumed the relationship.
25:35 Holly Frey? Edward sold his first novel, Falkland, in 1827. It was not the financial success that he hoped it would be, but he and Rosina got married in Piccadilly on August 29th of that year. His mother did not come to the wedding, and afterward, as she'd threatened to do, she cut off his allowance, leaving him only with his inheritance from his father and what he could earn on his own. She also refused to see him, and she returned all of his letters unopened for more than a year.
26:06 Tracy V. Wilson? In one of his many letters, Edward had told Rosina that because of this whole situation with his mother and his reduced income, they might have to live abroad in total isolation. Instead, they moved to a secluded house in Oxfordshire, where Edward kept trying to be a successful writer with Rosina's ongoing help.
26:28 Holly Frey? We will talk about how their marriage evolved from this after we pause for another sponsor break.
26:37 Holly Frey? We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health Versus Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends.
27:20 Holly Frey? Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health Versus Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
27:41 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jess A. have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends
28:24 Tracy V. Wilson? proving that queer joy only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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30:52 Tracy V. Wilson? Before they got married, it seems like Edward and Rosina had talked a whole lot about what their lives might be like if they got married without his mother's approval. But even so, it just doesn't seem like they were fully prepared for that reality when it finally arrived. Edward continued to write Rosina really gushing letters when they were apart, but he also worked himself just to exhaustion trying to earn money as a writer, and he expected Rosina's continual help with that writing. He still had an eye on a seat in Parliament, and by 1828, he started hinting to Rosina
31:32 Tracy V. Wilson? that it might be possible that he could claim the Doyle Baronacy through his marriage to her.
31:39 Holly Frey? By that point, Rosina was pregnant, and her first allegation of Edward's physical abuse was during that pregnancy. She said she had been helping him in their library, but she got tired and she had to lie down on the couch. When he asked her to go up a ladder to get him another book, she told him that she was too tired to do it, and at that point, he kicked her.
32:03 Tracy V. Wilson? Edward's novel, Pelham, or The Adventures of a Gentleman, was published in May of 1828, and it became a huge bestseller. Their daughter, Emily Elizabeth, was born the following month, on June 27. Soon after this, Edward decided that Emily should be sent to a wet nurse, because if she stayed at home, she would take up too much of Rosina's time when he needed her help with his writing. By mid-July, Rosina was having eye trouble, which a doctor attributed to her constant weeping at being separated from her daughter. The doctor ordered her to spend three months recovering at the seaside town of Weymouth.
32:45 Tracy V. Wilson? Edward claimed that Rosina really wasn't affected by this and that she had always been more fond of their dogs.
32:53 Holly Frey? With the money that he earned from his novel, Edward bought a house on Hertford Street in the Mayfair District of London, and the family moved there. He started making more political connections and he started repairing his relationship with his mother, which added another layer of strain to his marriage because Elizabeth could be very domineering. And as we have established, she did not approve of Rosina at all.
33:18 Tracy V. Wilson? In the spring of 1831, Edward was elected MP for St. Ives. He met the property ownership requirement through the estate in Ireland that had belonged to Rosina's father because the way marriage worked under British law, married women's property belonged to their husband. On November 8th of that year, their son Edward Roberts, known as Robert, was born.
33:44 Holly Frey? In 1832, the Great Reform Act was passed in the UK, which reformed the parliamentary system and changed the requirements to become an MP. This law changed the parliamentary map, getting rid of so-called rotten boroughs that had two members of parliament but almost no population to represent. It also reduced the number of MPs in smaller districts, including St. Ives, which dropped from two MPs to one.
34:13 Tracy V. Wilson? This law also loosened up the property ownership requirements for becoming an MP, which allowed Edward to sell Rosina's property in Ireland, which he did for a little more than 3,700 pounds. Rosina had no say at all in this decision, again, because of those same laws about how marriage worked. After this reform bill passed, Edward was elected MP for Lincoln, and that was a seat that he held until 1841.
34:42 Holly Frey? In the fall of 1833, Edward and Rosina took a trip to Naples, arriving there that November. Edward is described as exhausted at this point from years of writing incessantly to try to maintain their income and lifestyle, but he also wrote while they were there. He finished most of his novel, The Last Days of Pompeii, which would be published in 1834, and become his most successful book.
35:08 Tracy V. Wilson? Edward had been having extramarital affairs, which Rosina knew about, and this included being involved with a married woman on this trip. And he also again became violent with Rosina while they were in Naples. Rosina's ladies maid, Rosetta Byrne, gave a sworn statement about what had happened later on, and here is what she wrote, quote, "Mr. Edward Lytton Bulworth did her ladyship not only as to cruel neglect and infidelity, but also as to acts of brutal personal violence, amongst others, on one occasion. When traveling in Italy in 1833, one night at the lake of Balsano, he so dashed the
35:50 Tracy V. Wilson? things about and at her ladyship that even Luigi, the courier, vowed he would not continue the journey with him. Again at Naples, after having in one of his brutal rages, kicked and banged her ladyship against the stone floor at the Hotel Victoria till she was black and blue and had to keep her bed. A few days after, because people began to talk of this at Naples, he made her poor lady get up and dress herself to go to a great dinner at Lord Hertford's."
36:20 Holly Frey? Edward and Rosina returned to England in early 1834, and there was another major violent incident that July. Rosina's ladies maid described this in the same sworn testament, quote, "After we got back to London, his temper continued awful towards her ladyship for having asked him for money to pay the house bills left unpaid when they were abroad. So one day in July 1834, at dinner at their house, 36 Hertford Street, Mayfair, London, he seized a carving knife and rushed at his wife when she cried out, 'For God's sake, Edward, take care what you are about.' Then he dropped the knife and sprang on her like a tiger, made his teeth meet in her
37:04 Holly Frey? left cheek, until her screams brought the men servants back into the dining room."
37:10 Tracy V. Wilson? In Rosina's account, this started when she told her husband that she was going to a christening, and he asked who she was going with. Rosina told him, and he reportedly said, "My mother calls her that ugly old woman," like, over and over again. And when Rosina just didn't acknowledge him, Edward asked if she had heard him. She said that she had, and when Edward asked why she hadn't answered him, she said she didn't think it required an answer, and that was when he had come at her with a knife.
37:38 Holly Frey? Shortly after this incident, Edward wrote Rosina a letter that said in part, "I am now convinced of what I have long believed. I am only fit to live alone. God and nature afflicted me with unsocial habits, weak nerves, and violent passions. Everything in my life tended to feed these infirmities until they have become a confirmed and incurable disease, which nothing but a gentle pity, a forbearing, soothing, watchful compassion, as of a nurse over a madman, can render bearable to me or others."
38:12 Tracy V. Wilson? They decided to separate, and Edward said that he would provide Rosina with 600 pounds a year, paid out quarterly. He advised her to sell the house because she wouldn't be able to afford it on that amount. And he said that where she and the children lived and how were up to her, although he might decide to have an influence on their son's education when he got a little older. At this point, their daughter was six and their son was three.
38:38 Holly Frey? This was an informal separation, and over the next few years, Rosina and Edward made some attempts to reconcile. The final straw that led them to legally separate seems to have happened in 1836. Edward had told Rosina that he was going to have dinner with her, and then at the last minute, a servant brought word to her that he was ill. Rosina went to his rooms to see if he was okay and to take care of him if necessary, and she found him with a woman named Laura Deacon. Edward very indignantly claimed that Rosina had jumped to conclusions and attacked him after simply seeing that there were two teacups
39:19 Holly Frey? on the table. But this relationship with Laura Deacon was ongoing, and the two of them ultimately had three children together.
39:27 Tracy V. Wilson? The only way to obtain a divorce in the UK at this point was through an act of Parliament. A man could initiate a divorce bill on the grounds of adultery, and a woman could do so on the grounds of adultery and also cruelty. Only very wealthy people could afford to do this, really wealthier than Edward and Rosina probably. But beyond that, Edward had no proof that Rosina had ever been unfaithful, although there had been some rumors that she had flirted with a prince while they were in Naples. Rosina might have been able to prove Edward's infidelity, but she would also have to prove that he was cruel. That would have been a lot harder.
40:10 Tracy V. Wilson? That sworn statement from her maid is something that was written much later on. And even if she had had something like that to use as evidence, Edward would have gone to great lengths to defend himself from allegations of cruelty. That was just not something that he would have been willing to admit to.
40:28 Holly Frey? So they legally separated on April 19th, 1836. Their deed of separation said in part, "Whereas unhappy differences have arisen and still subsist between the said Edward George Earl Lytton-Bulwer and Rosina Anne, his wife, by reason whereof they have agreed to live separate and apart from each other for the future, and whereas the said Edward George Earl Lytton-Bulwer hath proposed to allow unto or entrust for the said Rosina Anne Bulwer during the said separation the yearly sum of £400 as a provision for her maintenance and support."
41:06 Tracy V. Wilson? The deed of separation also specified that Rosina would get an additional £50 per year for each of her children as long as they lived with her. And it established two trustees for her, Sir Francis Hastings Doyle and the Reverend Sir Thomas Gary Cullum.
41:23 Holly Frey? On June 14th, 1836, Rosina and her children moved out of Edward's home. She and Edward were both 33 and the children were seven and four. Since Edward and Rosina were still legally married, she still had no legal or economic rights apart from him and was totally dependent on his support. Unlike her mother, she didn't have a father figure in a high ranking government position that she could move in with along with her children. Sir John Doyle, who had sheltered them when Rosina was a child, had died two years before this.
41:59 Tracy V. Wilson? This was not a case in which Rosina and Edward happily went their own way after being separated. In the words of her maid's sworn statement, quote, "He has ever since hunted her through the world with spies and bad women and does not allow her enough to live upon for a lady in her station."
42:19 Holly Frey? After their separation, Rosina wrote a lot, both to make up for a lack of income and to make sure that the world knew what she thought of her husband. And we're going to get into all of that next time. Do you have some listener mail to take us out of this domestic horror?
42:37 Tracy V. Wilson? I do have some listener mail. Before listener mail, we can mention once again that we are taking a trip to Morocco this November. I don't think we have mentioned that on the show in a bit. The last time I checked, we were sold out of individual, single rooms. And Defined Destinations was getting in touch with people just to see if there was anybody who might be okay sharing a room with somebody. There are still spots available for people traveling together as a pair, whether that's friends or a couple or whatever. So the best way to get to that is to go to defineddestinations.com and click on Tours, and it's the one called A Taste of Morocco.
43:19 Tracy V. Wilson? And yes, now I do have listener mail. This listener mail is from Gary, who wrote after our Triple Nichols episode. Gary wrote, Dear Tracy and Holly, I know I've been writing a lot lately, but I've been listening to your podcast a lot lately and I have thoughts. As a white male boomer and a lifelong resident of Oregon, I didn't expect the Triple Nichols episode to hit so close to home, but it did in several ways. First, my ears perked up at the mention of Fort Benning. My mom's first husband attended officer training school at Fort Benning. When my mom was about 21 years old, she took a train across the country to join him there. In later years, she told me that that train ride through the South and her time in Georgia
44:02 Tracy V. Wilson? were very upsetting to her because of the widespread poverty and the treatment of black people. Her husband was killed in a noncombat vehicle crash somewhere in Europe shortly after VE Day. When I was going through her things after she passed away in 2000, I found materials from his time at Fort Benning, including a booklet listing all of his fellow graduates, among whom was a William Gates senior, the father of Microsoft's Bill Gates, just a fun fact. Then you got to the part about the Mitchell Party tragedy in Bligh and the connection to the creation of smokejumpers, including the Triple Nichols' participation in them. My dad's family has lived in that area since the late 19th century, and I too lived in nearby Lakeview for several years and have visited the monument.
44:47 Tracy V. Wilson? One of my older brother's best friends earned money for college as a smokejumper based out of Cave Junction, near where we grew up in Grants Pass. But I really wasn't aware of the 555 or their connection to the balloon bomb case or the smokejumpers. And I'm always really happy when I learn new historical facts, especially about things and events that have touched my life. So thanks again for a really interesting episode. I'm attaching another photo of Juno, the red standard poodle, this time on a little hike with us. She's posing on a trail surrounded by blooming larkspur. She just turned 10 years old earlier this month, but she's still a very active girl and loves walking in the forest with us. She recently pulled a muscle chasing a deer or squirrel. So we're having to keep her quiet, which is quite a challenge while that heals. Thanks again for your good work, Gary.
45:32 Tracy V. Wilson? I like how the options of chasing include a deer and a squirrel. Two dissimilar animals. Oh, my goodness.
45:41 Holly Frey? Dissimilar, but in similar places.
45:43 Tracy V. Wilson? Similar places, similar fleeing from dogs, I would imagine.
45:47 Holly Frey? Yeah.
45:48 Tracy V. Wilson? Um, what a cute poodle.
45:51 Holly Frey? She's precious.
45:53 Tracy V. Wilson? Very cute with a brown, just brown, light brown fur and a very, this face looks very pensive to me. Uh, it is sort of like she's thinking, is it okay for me to go on ahead of you? Do you want me to wait? Can I go? Not sure. Uh, thank you so much for this email, Gary. You probably have heard the balloons, the Japanese, or the balloons of World War II episode that we talked more about the tragedy of Bly and the Japanese balloon bombs. Um, I've gotten a couple of emails that kind of referenced having never heard of that before. So in case folks have missed it, there is an episode in, uh, our previous episodes called
46:36 Tracy V. Wilson? The Balloons of World War II that talks more about that. So, thank you so much, Gary. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcasts, we're at [email protected] and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeart Radio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts.
46:59 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
47:14 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, And Connection, produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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48:20 Tracy V. Wilson? Live Right, publishers of John U. Bacon's New York Times bestseller, The Gales of November, a chronicle of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald's 1975 shipwreck. Never has it been told better than by Mr. Bacon in this colorful book, writes John J. Miller of the Wall Street Journal, while author Hampton Sides proclaims that it's destined to be a classic. The Gales of November, now in paperback.
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Previous SYMHC Classics: Theodosia Burr Alston Next Rosina Bulwer-Lytton’s Blighted Life (Part 2) Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated