Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (born 26 September 1943 Madrid) is a British artist and third (and former wife) of John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough.

She was born Countess Dagmar Rosita Astrid Libertas Douglas in Madrid, Spain, the younger daughter of count Carl (Carl Ludvig) Douglas (26 July 1908 Stjärnorp - 21 January 1961 Rio de Janeiro), a Swedish nobleman and diplomat who was Royal Swedish Ambassador to Brazil, and his Prussian wife Ottora Maria Haas-Heye (13 February 1910 Partenkirchen - 17 July 2001, died aged 91), 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

She became the third wife of John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough on 20 May 1972, whereupon she became The Duchess of Marlborough. 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 several articles, the Duchess moved to a 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 Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein by marriage, Duchess Marie-Caroline of Wurttemberg, 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

Styles

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

References

1. ^ Rosita Marlborough: A Retrospective, Retrieved 12 December 2008
2. ^ Daily Mail, 15 May 2008 - It's a Sunny day to get divorced
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

External links

• Official website, including official biography
• Biography
• Descendants of Count Carl Israel Douglas and his wife, an illegitimate daughter of a Grand Duke of Baden (patrilineal ancestors of Rosita), also archived at family history website. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
• Partial ancestry of Rosita Marlborough with ancestors no. 14 and 15 being her parents.

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Name	Marlborough, Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of
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Date of birth	26 September 1943
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