FACT 1 —Mary Eleanor Bowes was the great-great-great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth the Second on her mother’s Bowes-Lyon side,.

FACT 2 –At 11, she was left the richest heiress in England by her industrialist father–between 80 and 120 mill in today’s terms.  Unusually for the time the fortune was subject to a prenuptial agreement.

FACT 3– 23 years later, this well educated, poet and botanist  was cowed, hungry covered in bruises from beatings and wearing underwear borrowed from servants.

FACT 4– Her first husband was the Earl of Strathmore of Glamis Castle, Angus, fame,

but since her father’s will also stipulated that her husband should assume his family name, the Earl changed his name from John Lyon to John Bowes. Hence the Bowes-Lyon. Mary’s fortune restored the castle while he drank and she took lovers.

FACT 5 Following his death,  on her way to marry her latest lover, she instead tied the knot with one ‘Captain’– he wasn’t–Stoney, an Anglo Irish MP. after he was stretchered–apparently dying having apparently fought a duel on her behalf — into the church where his recovery once she’d agreed, was miraculous.

FACT 6 In addition to beating and burning her for eight years, not to mention kidnapping her off the street at one point, . Stoney also lugged her about the country on horseback  naked apart from a blanket in the hope she’d die of cold…after signing everything over to him first of course.

Fact 7– Mary was eventually rescued by  servants. Stoney lost the divorce case and Mary thereafter lived a very quiet  life.

Mary’s biographer, Wendy Moore –no relation to Shey although Shey did once interview her– was of the opinion that servants were often swayed by bribes in these days. However she also said that Mary’s gardener would rather die for her than do her husband’s bidding. And she did command loyalty from her immediate maids.

Fact 8 –Thackeray’s The book the Luck of Barry Lyndon and made into a film starring Ryan O’Neal and Marisa Berenson,  was based on  Mary’s story.