Undoing: The Scandalous Duke of Cumberland

Guess what’s out on audiobook! Undoing features the inspired narration by Stevie Zimmerman is available on Audible and Amazon!  I’m so excited for everyone to hear Stevie’s amazing work.

But first, I thought some who hadn’t read the inspiration behind my character of Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds, might love learning about the story that made me think of him and also Colin.

Please stick around after the post! I’m giving away 2 Audible codes for a free copy of Undoing!

If you’ve read Undoing, you might have noticed my mention in the author’s notes that I was inspired by a story of the Duke of Cumberland. I’d toyed with the idea of calling him the Duke of Cumberland in the book, but due to a real-life Darcy connection to the Duke of Leeds, I swapped over to that title. I did not use the Duke’s story per se, but a situation in the story gave me an idea that created Thomas. I found the duke’s story fascinating when I read it, and I thought you might find him as interesting as I do.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read Undoing yet, the following might be a spoiler of sorts, so you might want to decide whether you read this now or after you read Undoing. 

Prince Ernest Augustus, The Duke of Cumberland (and later the King of Hanover) was the fifth child of George III and Charlotte of Mecklenberg. He fought against France in the Hanoverian army, which caused him to have disfiguring scars on his face as well as the loss of his sight in one eye. In time, he also gained a rather notorious reputation.

The duke’s most famous scandal was the 1810 death of his valet, Joseph Sellis. In the early morning of 31 May, cries of “Murder! Murder!” came from the bedchamber of the Duke of Cumberland.

Supposedly, between 2 and 3 am, someone intruded in the duke’s bedchamber, picked up the duke’s sabre, and struck the duke multiple times while he slumbered. When his page, Neale, entered the room, the duke had 4 wounds from the attack, including one to the head, which was said to have split through his skull, using the flat side of the blade. The room was empty and a door left open, giving an escape route to the murderer.

After obtaining a physician to help the duke, the staff searched St. James Palace only to discover Sellis, the duke’s valet, missing. He was found in his locked room and his throat slashed. Oddly, they’d found Sellis’s slippers in a most peculiar location—the Duke of Cumberland’s closet.

Several stories of Sellis’s past were revealed during an investigation into the events, including that Sellis had left Corsica years ago a thief. In the end, it was decided that Sellis, in a fit of madness, was the one who attempted to murder the Duke of Cumberland and then slit his own throat.

With the determination being suicide, why would it be scandalous? There are a number of reasons historians and society at that time had other suspicions. One reason, aside from the slippers, was the nature of Sellis’s wound, which was so deep, his spine had been the only thing keeping his neck from being completely severed. The razor used to kill Sellis was also across the room, but was claimed to have been moved from its original position. Regardless, how did one slit their own throat so severely with a razor?

A companion to Princess Charlotte wrote in her journal, “there were some circumstances that threw doubt upon his guilt. The slippers were old, and the name written in them appeared to be in French whereas Sellis was a Piedmontese, and there were reasons for supposing it was a greater person who had counselled the crime.” According to the companion, Sellis was left-handed, and the physician who examined Sellis after his death, claimed the wound could not have been made by someone who was left-handed.

“The wash basin was in the stand, but was half full of bloody water! Upon examining Sellis’s cravat, it was found to be cut. The padding which he usually wore was covered with silk and quilted; but what was most remarkable, both the padding and the cravat were cut as if some person had made an attempt to cut the throat with the cravat on, then, finding the woollen or cotton stuffing to impede the razor, took it off in order more readily to effect the purpose.” – from the newspaper

In an odd and morbid turn of events, Sellis’s room and body became fodder for the public, and the palace allowed a few people at a time to come view the room as if it were a drawing-room in a National Trust home.

After that fateful morning, theories abounded as to what actually happened. Sellis’s wife claimed Neale (the duke’s page) had been messing with the duke’s expenses and Sellis discovered his dishonesty. One paper claimed that the Duke of Cumberland and Sellis were lovers until Neale arrived and replaced Sellis. When Sellis discovered the duke and Neale together (Excerpt from paper -“A short period before this dreadful catastrophe, the Duke had been surprised in an improper and unnatural situation with this Neale by the other servant, Sellis, and an exposure was expected.”) Sellis wounded the duke in a rage, and the duke retaliated by having Sellis killed. In another variation of this theory, Sellis discovered the duke and Neale together so Cumberland killed Sellis to keep him quiet and wounded himself so he could claim Sellis attacked him. Neal was bribed to disappear. The queen’s companion wrote in her journal, “The duke gave a pension to his Irish page, and dismissed him. This man had a brother who had a good appointment in Windsor Castle, and a family, but he resigned, and went away.”

Cumberland sued the journalist who printed the rumour of the love triangle for libel and won, jailing the man for fifteen months. The rumours, however, persisted and were dragged back into the limelight after the husband of one of Cumberland’s lovers died in much the same manner as Sellis, only adding further fuel to the rumour mill.

Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know the true story behind the murder of Joseph Sellis, but I remember thinking how ingenious it was to keep a lover hired as a valet. After all, society and the law were not friendly to the homosexual community in that day and time. Keeping one’s sexual identity quiet would seem quite important.

In Undoing, Thomas Osborne, the Duke of Leeds went to great lengths to keep his sexual identity quiet in the story. He was certainly not perfect and did hurt people along his journey (thankfully, not through murder!), though I really worked to keep him as sympathetic a character as I could. I really enjoyed writing him and felt for his situation. Coming out in this day and time is not easy, I cannot even imagine how difficult living with such a secret was during the Regency era.

If you’d like to read Thomas’s story,  Undoing is out on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and audiobook!

Now! If you haven’t heard an excerpt of Stevie’s wonderful narration, give the excerpt a listen, then leave me a comment below to enter! Tell me what part you want to hear Stevie narrate to enter and let me know whether you’re Audible US or Audible UK so I know what code to send. Happy listening! I’ll be choosing a winner on Friday!

Sources:
https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/the-duke-of-cumberland-and-his-valet-a-bloody-tale-of-attempted-murder/
Rictor Norton (Ed.), “Scandal Involving the Duke of Cumberland, 1832”, Homosexuality in Nineteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook, 27 May 2012 <http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/cumber1.htm>.