Elizabeth Craven

Biography

Elizabeth, Princess Berkeley (born Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; 17 December 1750 – 13 January 1828), sometimes unofficially styled Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, previously Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven of Hamstead Marshall, was an author and playwright, perhaps best known for her travelogues.

Early life

Elizabeth Berkeley was born in Mayfair, London, the fifth child of Augustus Berkeley, 4th Earl of Berkeley and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax and Elizabeth Ernle. She was the second child in the family to survive infancy.

Marriages and later life

Her life was full of scandal: on 30 May 1767, "much against her will at the age of sixteen", she was married to William Craven, 6th Baron Craven. After thirteen years of marriage, seven children, and affairs reported on both sides, the couple parted permanently in 1780. She had an affair with Charles Francis Greville sometime in late 1783.
Thereafter she lived in France and traveled extensively on the Continent. She lost contact with her eldest six children, but her seventh child, Keppel Richard Craven, who was four, lived with her.
For a number of years she maintained a romantic relationship with Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. During her years at the Ansbach court, Lady Craven formed an amateur theatre at court, which counted the composer Maria Theresia von Ahlefeldt among its members. Princess Frederica Caroline of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the Margrave's wife since 1754, died on 18 February 1791, and Lord Craven died in Lausanne on 26 September 1791. Lady Craven and the Margrave then married in Lisbon on 30 October 1791 and settled in England.
The Margravine was not received socially by certain women, and nor by King George III, and Queen Marie Antoinette when she visited France, the couple lived a full and opulent life in Hammersmith, London, and at Benham Park, Berkshire.
Lady Craven was never legally entitled to share her husband's German rank and title, though on 20 February 1801, she was granted the morganatic title of "Princess (Fürstin) Berkeley" by the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II. In fact, Alexander, being the last of his cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, and childless, had exchanged his hereditary birthright to the appanages of Ansbach and Bayreuth for an annuity of 300,000 guilders from his pater familias, King Frederick William II of Prussia, a month after his second marriage. In England, however, the couple were usually known as the Margrave and Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach.
After Alexander's death at Benham Park in 1806, Princess Berkeley moved to Naples. She died at Craven Villa in Posillipo and was buried in 1828 in the English Cemetery at Naples. Her links with the Hammersmith area are commemorated in the names of two roads in the area – Margravine Gardens and Margravine Road. There is a wall monument by Roubiliac to her in St Mary's Church, Scarborough.
Her children were:

Hon. Elizabeth Craven (1768 – 1799), married John Edward Maddocks
Hon. Maria Margaret Craven (1769 – 1851), married William Molyneux, 2nd Earl of Sefton
Major-General William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1770 – 1825)
Hon. Georgiana Craven (1772 – 1839)
Hon. Arabella Craven (1774 – 1819), married General Hon. Frederick St John
Major-General Hon. Henry Augustus Berkeley Craven (1776 – 1836)
Hon. Richard Keppel Craven (1779 – 1851)

Performances

Most of Craven's plays were produced as private theatricals at Brandenburgh House at Fulham. Three of them were produced on the professional stage:

The Miniature Picture ran four nights at Drury Lane beginning Wednesday 24 May 1780.
The Silver Tankard; or, The Point at Portsmouth (with music by Craven, Tommaso Giordani, and Samuel Arnold) began a six-performance run at the Haymarket Theatre on Wednesday 18 July 1781.
The Princess of Georgia played at Covent Garden on Friday 19 April 1799.

Etexts

The Georgian Princess. 1799 [1798]. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007.
Modern anecdotes (1779): full text at Google Books
The Miniature Picture (1780): full text at Google Books
A journey through the Crimea (1789): full text at HathiTrust; full text at Google Books
Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach (1826): full text at HathiTrust; full text at Google Books