Diana Spencer, Duchess of Bedford

Diana Russell, Duchess of Bedford (née Lady Diana Spencer; 31 July 1710 – 27 September 1735), was a member of the Spencer family, chiefly remembered because of an unsuccessful attempt to arrange a marriage for her with Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Orphaned by the age of 6, Lady Diana, known by her family as "dear little Di", joined the household of her rich and ambitious maternal grandmother, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. She was her grandmother's favourite grandchild and closest confidante. The highly influential Duchess of Marlborough tried to arrange a secret marriage between Lady Diana and Prince Frederick, King George II's eldest son and heir apparent to the throne. When the scheme was frustrated by Prime Minister Robert Walpole, Lady Diana was married off to Lord John Russell, later 4th Duke of Bedford. The couple's only child was a son named John, whose preterm birth was induced by a carriage accident and who lived for a day. Following a further miscarriage, the Duchess of Bedford died of tuberculosis at the age of 25.

Diana's brother John's descendant Lady Diana Spencer, who married Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981, was named after her.

Early life

Lady Diana Spencer was born into the rising Spencer family in London on 31 July 1710. The Duke of Marlborough died on 16 June the same year. His widow, now Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, had closely involved herself with the upbringing of Lady Diana and her siblings since the death of Lady Sunderland. The death of the children's father left them entirely in the care of the Dowager Duchess.

Known to her family as "dear little Di", Lady Diana grew up into a tall, fair-haired, and attractive young woman, and was considered sympathetic and charismatic by her contemporaries. She acted as amanuensis to her grandmother, who found writing her numerous letters difficult due to her gout. and the date was agreed on. The death of her brother-in-law in Spain on 23 October 1732 made Lady Diana Duchess of Bedford and châtelaine of Woburn Abbey. The trauma induced the premature birth of a son named John, possibly in Cheam. The Dowager Duchess insisted that her granddaughter be moved to Bedford House in Bloomsbury Square. She had become estranged from all her surviving daughters, and the Duchess of Bedford was her only grandchild who never disappointed her. Lord Hervey, however, accused the Dowager Duchess of caring more about the return of her granddaughter's jewels, which she demanded back from the Duke even before the Duchess was buried. Unlike her ancestor, the 20th-century Lady Diana Spencer married her Prince of Wales, Charles, in 1981. She died in 1997, aged 36, a year after their divorce. Victoria Massey, biographer of the earlier Lady Diana Spencer, noted the similarities between the lives of the two namesakes: as children, they both lived at Althorp and socialised with royalty; both grew up without a mother from the age of six; both were proposed as a bride for a Prince of Wales; both had an accident during her first pregnancy; and both died unexpectedly at a young age.