What if Elizabeth Bennet had never married Mr. Darcy? What if, instead, she packed a few essentials, headed off to the Middle East, donned turbans and pantaloons, read ancient prophecies, and hosted Bedouin chieftains in a mountaintop fortress? Of course our favorite fictional heroine never did that. But Lady Hester Stanhope, a real life contemporary of Jane Austen, did all that and more!
In the world of Jane Austen, a woman’s adventures usually take place in drawing rooms and gardens, over tea and pianoforte recitals. The stakes are high—love, security, and social standing—but the settings are familiar and tightly corseted (in every sense). Lady Hester Stanhope, however, tore off that corset, tossed aside the teacup, and rode into history on horseback.
Stanhope was no stranger to power. Born in 1776, she was the niece of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and she effectively acted as his hostess during his final few years. In a world where women had little official power she wielded soft political influence with flair and intelligence. She could easily have settled into the kind of existence even Lady Catherine de Bourgh might approve: stately, formidable, and just a touch meddlesome.
But Stanhope was made of stranger stuff. After her uncle’s death and at least one broken romance, she left England and, quite literally, never looked back. She sailed east and never returned. Swapping her gowns for Eastern robes and her hairpins for a turban, she traveled through Greece, the Holy Land, and Syria.
Yes, she really did dress like a man!
At one point, she led an expedition to uncover buried treasure based on a medieval manuscript. (Alas, all she found was a statue, which she then had destroyed.) She met with local rulers, commanded loyalty from followers, and, at last, set up her own court in the mountains of Lebanon. ***
Jane Austen never wrote a heroine who did that.
And yet—there are glimmers of Stanhope in Austen’s characters. Take Elizabeth Bennet’s independence of mind, her refusal to marry simply for status or financial security. Or Anne Elliot’s quiet determination in Persuasion, or even Emma Woodhouse’s self-assurance and tendency to control others. Austen’s heroines don’t conform passively. They resist, challenge, and ultimately shape the domestic spheres they inhabit.
But Lady Hester Stanhope didn’t want to reshape the domestic sphere. She wanted to escape it entirely.
She once wrote: “Marriage is a tiresome, vulgar affair, and I am glad I have escaped it.” That certainly wouldn’t fly in Meryton. While Elizabeth Bennet hoped for a partner worthy of her wit and spirit, Stanhope deemed the entire institution unworthy of her attention.
Sadly, Stanhope’s real life did not have a happy ever after. Her final years were isolated and marked by declining health and financial ruin. She became increasingly eccentric and paranoid, living in semi-seclusion among crumbling ruins. But right up until her death in 1839, she clung to her vision of autonomy and command.
What would Jane Austen have thought of Lady Hester? I wish we knew! Perhaps she would have admired her courage and resolve. Perhaps she would have rolled her eyes at the melodrama. But there’s no denying that Lady Hester Stanhope lived a kind of Regency womanhood that Austen never wrote about—because few women dared to live it.
In the end, Austen gave us heroines who won independence within the system. Stanhope threw the system out the window and built her own.
And really, who says a Regency heroine can’t carry a sword?
If you would like to learn more about this astonishing woman, check out:
https://medium.com/@neilsondavid3/lady-hester-stanhope-who-did-exactly-as-she-pleased-972415e7d4cc
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp54153/lady-hester-lucy-stanhope
***She became the actual ruler of a small region in Lebanon, a position Lady Catherine herself would have envied.***
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