The Marlborough House set included a wide variety of members beyond the traditional upper classes. Admission to the set was on the basis of personality, wealth and, for women, beauty. Members of the set included horse racing enthusiasts, bankers, actresses and opera singers as well as a large number of American heiresses who had married into the British aristocracy. Among the bankers,
Maurice de Hirsch joined in 1890 after paying off Edward's debts and
Ernest Cassel did the same in 1896. The Jewish lawyer
George Henry Lewis acted as an informal solicitor to the set and was said to know all its members' secrets. The Marlborough House set was more open to
new money figures than other parts of high society. These included the brewer
Henry Allsopp and the
Lister-Kaye family, whose money derived from cotton mills. The admission of new money represented a shift by Edward from the traditional aristocracy, many of whose members had bankrupted themselves in trying to entertain him.
List The membership of the set was constantly changing. However several sources have given lists of those who were members at one time or another. ;Principal members The historian
Jane Ridley, writing in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography lists the following as the principal members of the set: • Edward, Prince of Wales • Alexandra of Denmark •
Francis Knollys (Edward's private secretary) •
Louisa Cavendish, Duchess of Manchester (a mistress of the robes to Victoria dismissed in 1859 for "her tone, her love of admiration and 'fast style'"; together with her lover,
Lord Hartington, and Edward they formed the so-called "innermost trinity" of London society for about 40 years from 1866) •
Arthur Ellis (an equerry to Edward) •
Lord Charles Beresford (an equerry to Edward) • Heneage Finch, 7th Earl of Aylesford and his wife Edith (but see above) •
George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland •
Prince Louis of Battenberg •
Maria, Lady Ailesbury •
Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke •
Maurice de Hirsch •
Charles Hardinge •
Thomas Lipton •
Ernest Cassel •
Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher •
Alice Keppel (Edward's mistress from 1898) •
Mrs Willie James •
Mrs Naylor-Leyland • Jesusa Bellido y de los Heros, Marchioness of Santurce (a mistress of Edward's) ;French sub-set A small sub-set of members had significant connections to France and include: •
Mr and Mrs Standish • , Princess of Sagan •
Gaston, Marquis de Galliffet •
Antonin-Just-Léon-Marie de Noailles, Duke de Mouchy and his wife Anne Murat ;Hamilton's list Others, in addition to those listed previously, are given in an 1891 diary entry by civil servant
Edward Walter Hamilton: •
Archibald Acheson, 4th Earl of Gosford and his wife
Louisa Acheson, Countess of Gosford •
Edward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley •
Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester •
Georgina Ward, Countess of Dudley •
Arthur Sassoon •
John Lister-Kaye • Emily Yznaga • Margaret Williams-Bulkeley and her daughter Mrs Benjamin Guinness •
Henry Sturt, 1st Baron Alington and his daughters Owen and Hwfa •
Sir Leslie Falkiner, seventh baronet •
Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster and his wife Hermione • Don José Murrieta y del Campo, 1st Marquis of Santurce •
William Gerard, 2nd Baron Gerard and his wife Mary • Henry Oppenheim •
Lord Randolph Churchill and his wife
Lady Randolph Churchill • John and Frances Horner •
Henry Wellesley, 3rd Duke of Wellington •
Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry and his wife
Theresa Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry •
Frederick Robinson, 4th Earl de Grey and his wife
Constance, Countess de Grey •
Francis Greville, Lord Brooke (husband of Daisy Greville) •
Lord Carrington •
Charles Harbord, 5th Baron Suffield (lord of the bedchamber to Edward) and his wife Cecilia • Sir William Carrington •
Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox • Lord Hartington • Oliver Montagu (an equerry to Edward and confidant of Princess Alexandra) • J. C. Sykes •
Horace Farquhar •
Henry Chaplin • Sir Lawrence Oliphant •
Luís Pinto de Soveral, 1st Marquis of Soveral •
John Baring •
Francis Mildmay, 1st Baron Mildmay of Flete •
Montague Guest In addition Hamilton names
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery as being "of course of the set, but as a matter of fact is not much in it". ;National Portrait Gallery list In addition to those mentioned in the above lists the
National Portrait Gallery lists the following as members: •
Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire • Winifred Selina Sturt (wife of Charles Hardinge) •
Charles Stanhope, 8th Earl of Harrington •
Robert Kingscote •
William Knollys (father of Francis Knollys) •
Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester • Natica Yznaga (wife of John Lister-Kaye) • Mildred Cecilia Harriet, Lady Montagu •
Sir Charles Mordaunt, 10th Baronet and his wife
Harriet Mordaunt (but see above) •
Maurice Towneley-O'Hagan, 3rd Baron O'Hagan •
George Payne •
John Baring, 2nd Baron Revelstoke •
Reuben David Sassoon •
Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Wharncliffe •
Owen Williams == References ==