Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham

They had five children together, three sons and two daughters: Despite her beauty, she was considered vulgar, shrewd, greedy, and unsuited to aristocratic society on account of her common background; however, she attracted lovers and admirers, including the Russian Grand Duke, the future Nicholas I.

[4] The Conynghams were not well-connected, but according to the Duke of Wellington, Elizabeth decided as early as 1806 to become a mistress of the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV.

While his wife Caroline of Brunswick was on trial in 1820 as part of efforts to divorce her, the king could not be seen with Lady Conyngham and was consequently "bored and lonely."

Her husband was raised to the rank of a marquess in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and sworn to the Privy Council, in the coronation honours of 1821.

But on one occasion, she requested that her son's tutor be made Canon of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and the prime minister, Lord Liverpool, threatened to resign over the matter.

Dorothea Lieven, wife of the Russian ambassador, dismissed her with contempt as having "not an idea in her head...not a word to say for herself...nothing but a hand to accept pearls and diamonds, and an enormous balcony to wear them on.

Portrait of Lady Conyngham, 1801, by Sir Thomas Lawrence . Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery , Birmingham .
Elizabeth, Countess Conyngham
Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Conyngham, the Marchioness's daughter, commonly misidentified as the Marchioness herself. The portrait, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the early 1820s, is in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian , Lisbon.
Another portrait commonly misidentified as the Marchioness, called "Lady Elizabeth Conyngham" and attributed to Sir Thomas Lawrence . In fact it is a 1775 portrait of Mrs. Lowndes-Stone by Sir Thomas Gainsborough , also located in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian , Lisbon.