María Consuelo Yznaga del Valle

Maria Consuelo Yznaga del Valle (1859-1909) was a Cuban-American woman who married the then-Viscount Mandeville and later became known as the Duchess of Manchester. Her life story was fictionalized in her friend and writer Edith Wharton's "The Buccaneers".

Biography

Maria Consuelo Yznaga del Valle was born on the Ravenswood plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana in 1858, the third child of Antonio and Ellen (Clements) Yznaga del Valle. Her father hailed from Cuba and had connections to several Spanish aristocratic houses, his mother having been born a del Valle. Her mother hailed from New York.

In her teenage years, she became known on the New York social scene as one of a group called the "Bouncers", where she met the Viscount Mandeville. The couple was married at Grace Church, New York in 1876 [cite news |title=DUKE OF MANCHESTER DEAD; SCION OF A FAMILY NOTED SINCE THE NORMAN CONQUEST |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F07E0D81331E033A2575AC1A96E9C94639ED7CF |date=1892-08-19 |page=9 ] , then settled on an estate in Ireland. The couple had three children, a son William, who succeeded his father as duke, and twin daughters who died of consumption after their father's death in 1892. [cite news |title=THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND; Chiefly Due to the Remarkable Success of Two Members of a Remarkable Group of New York Girls Who, as Bouncers, Flourished Thirty Years Ago. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806E7DD1738E033A25754C0A9629C946697D6CF |work=New York Times |date=1907-04-07 |page=SM5 ]

Lady Mandeville was friends from childhood with Alva Belmont, who named her daughter, Consuelo Vanderbilt, in her friend's honor.

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