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Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

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Dagmar Rosita Astrid Libertas Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (née Douglas; born 26 September 1943, Madrid) is a British artist of Swedish and German descent. She was the third wife of John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, from 1972 until their divorce in 2008.

Early life

She was born as Countess Rosita Douglas in Madrid, Spain, the younger daughter of Count Carl Douglas (1908-1961), a Swedish nobleman and diplomat who was Royal Swedish Ambassador to Brazil, and his Prussian wife Ottora Maria Haas-Heye (1910-2001), maternal granddaughter of Philip, Prince of Eulenburg and Hertefeld, by his wife Augusta, Countess Sandels. She grew up as a diplomat’s child, travelling all over the world but spent her summers at the family home, the castle of Stjärnorp, which belonged to Rosita's paternal grandfather, General Archibald Douglas.

Rosita Douglas attended schools in Sweden and in Washington DC. She studied arts at Sweden’s renowned art school Konstfack in Stockholm, and then at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. While in Paris she also worked for the famed fashion designer, Emanuel Ungaro and later as a freelance designer in London.[1]

Marriage and divorce

On 20 May 1972, Rosita Douglas became the third wife of John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, an Englishman who had inherited his father's estates and titles two months before. She thus became Duchess of Marlborough, with a number of residences which included Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. They had three children:

  1. Lord Richard Spencer-Churchill (born 1973; died four months later as an infant)
  2. Lord Edward Albert Charles Spencer-Churchill (born 1974),
  3. Lady Alexandra Elizabeth Spencer-Churchill (born 1977).

The duke and duchess were divorced in 2008, after several years of living separately.[2] According to newspaper reports, the Duchess moved into a smaller house on the Blenheim estate and also bought herself a house in France.[3]

Rosita Marlborough as a painter

In 1992, the duchess returned to art as a professional. She has had two solo exhibitions in London and one in Palm Beach. Her first show in London in 1995 featured figurative paintings.[4] Since then, she traveled to Morocco in 1996, and her paintings of Moroccan themes sold briskly.[5] She has since exhibited and sold paintings in London, New York, and Palm Beach. Her paintings and sculptures are in collections around the world. She has also had a retrospective Rosita Marlborough: A Retrospective at the Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum at the Southern Vermont Arts Center from July 15-September 1, 2006.[4]

Family connections

Rosita Marlborough is a maternal aunt of Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein, Duchess Marie-Caroline of Württemberg, and their three sisters, Helene, Elisabeth, and Maria-Anna, who are all Princesses of Bavaria. Her elder sister Elisabeth (b. 1940) is married since January 1967 to Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, heir presumptive to the Headship of the Royal House of Bavaria, and also heir presumptive to the Jacobite pretensions to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. Her older brother is Swedish count and businessman Gustaf Douglas.

Her maternal aunt was Libertas Schulze-Boysen, née Haas-Heye (1913–1942), who with her husband, Harro Schulze-Boysen (1909–1942), were executed by the Nazis. Her maternal great-grandfather was Philip, Prince of Eulenburg and Hertefeld (1847–1921), a friend of Wilhelm II, whose youngest child Viktoria Ada Astrid Agnes Gräfin zu Eulenburg (1886–1967) married 1909 (divorced in 1921) professor Otto Ludwig Haas-Heye (1879–1959), and had issue, including two daughters. Rosita descends through both her mother and father from medieval Scandinavian nobility and rulers. However, her father's patriline is Scottish, of the Swedish-German branch, descended via two obscure generations,[6] descended from the youngest son of James Douglas, 1st Baron of Dalkeith, ancestor of the 15th century Earls of Morton. All these Douglases were of the Morton branch of the ancient Douglas family.

Ancestry

Family of Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough
16. Count Carl Israel Douglas
8. Count Ludvig Wilhem Douglas
17. Countess Louise of Langenstein and Gondelsheim
4. Count Wilhem Archibald Douglas
18. Count Albert Carl Ehrensvärd
9. Countess Anna Louise Ehrensvärd
19. Ingeborg Hedvig Vogt
2. Count Carl Ludwig Douglas
20. Lars Wilhelm Henschen
10. Prof. Dr. Salomon Eberhard Henschen
21. Augusta Munck af Rosenschöld
5. Astri Henschen
22. Anders Sandell
11. Gerda Maria Sandell
23. Charlotte Aurora Sjörgen
1. Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough
24. Ludwig David Haas
12. Dr. Hermann Julius Haas
25. Bertha Dreifuss
6. Prof. Otto Ludwig Haas-Heye
26. Gottlieb Heye
13. Hermanna Heye
27. Elisabeth Schimmelbusch
3. Ottora Maria Haas-Heye
28. Count Philipp of Eulenburg
14. Philip, Prince of Eulenburg and Hertefeld
29. Baroness Alexandrine of Rothkirch and Panthen
7. Countess Viktoria Ada of Eulenburg and Hertefeld
30. Count Samuel August Sandels
15. Augusta Sandels
31. Hedvig Henrietta Tersmeden

Titles and styles

  • 1943–1972: Countess Dagmar Rosita Astrid Libertas Douglas-Stjernorp auf Mühlhausen und Langenstein
  • 1972–2008: Her Grace The Duchess of Marlborough
  • 2008–present: Rosita, Duchess of Marlborough

References

  1. ^ Rosita Marlborough: A Retrospective, Retrieved 12 December 2008
  2. ^ It's a Sunny day to get divorced at dailymail.co.uk, from Daily Mail dated 15 May 2008
  3. ^ "Is divorce on Sunny's horizon?" Daily Mail 13 December 2007
  4. ^ a b "Rosita Marlborough: A Retrospective"
  5. ^ Gary Shapiro. "A Career Fit for a Duchess: Rosita Marlborough Takes on New York Art Scene" Knickerbocker, New York Sun, October 22, 2004
  6. ^ The descent is unquestionably legitimate from one Patrick Douglas, of Standingstone, who married Cairistiona Leslie, and whose son Robert Douglas (1611-1662) emigrated to Sweden and became the first Swedish count Douglas
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