Adeline, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre

Who was Adeline, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre?

Adeline Louisa Maria, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre, was the second wife of English peer James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan and later the wife of the Portuguese nobleman Don António Manuel de Saldanha e Lancastre, Conde de Lancastre. She was the author of scandalous memoirs, My Recollections, published in 1909, under the name Adeline Louisa Maria de Horsey Cardigan and Lancastre, though strictly speaking she was not allowed by the rules governing the British peerage to join her former and current titles together. Her book detailed events and people coupled with gossip concerning the establishment of Victorian England. After her marriage to the Earl of Cardigan in 1858, Queen Victoria had refused to have her at court because Cardigan had left his first wife.