“Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England”, by Catherine Bailey

 

Penguin Books, 576 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0143126843

Who knew that the proper English world could resemble an episode of Jerry Springer? In Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England, Catherine Bailey describes how the 7^th Earl Fitzwilliam, William Charles de Meuron Wentworth-Fitzwilliam (or “Billy” to his friends) may or may not have been the natural son of William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, Viscount Milton MP, and his wife, Laura Maria Theresa Beauclerk, the granddaughter of William Beauclerk, 8^th Duke of St Albans. You see, the “de Meuron” part of his name refers to Pointe de Meuron in deepest darkest Canada where he was born – or traded like a later day changeling; that is, an unrelated baby was inserted into the family line in order to purge the bloodline of the epilepsy from which his ostensible forebears had suffered and to provide that arm of the family a male heir to inherit the earldom.

The mystery surrounding Billy’s birth would come to head when he inherited the Fitzwilliam fortune upon the death of his grandfather (his own father predeceasing him), and, brother, what a fortune it was. You see, the Fitzwilliam wealth was not, like that of so many aristocrats, based on land (although they weren’t short of that, either), but on coal – the “black diamonds” of the title – worth some £3.3 billion today (or over $4.5 billion in real money). With that amount of wealth on the line, several of Billy’s relations sought to strip him of it all by the accusation that he was not, in fact, a Fitzwilliam. But this is only a part of the story in Black Diamonds, for in examining “the Fifty Years That Changed England” Bailey shows how class differences and the effect of two wars, union strikes and the final blow of the postwar Labour government brought down much of the aristocracy and their vast fortunes.

While the Fitzwilliams were generally considered beneficent landlords and employers (especially compared to others in their class who can best be described as Total Bastards), the life of a coal miner in early 20^th Century Britain was hell on earth (the life of a coal miner in late 20^th Century Britain, on the other hand, was quite different; it’s easy to forget in our modern age that Unions once had a point). And although the Fitzwilliams are always at the center of the story, Black Diamonds necessarily detours into the worlds of the coal miners, British Parliament and even the friggin’ Kennedys, if you can imagine. Black Diamonds is full of fascinating, real-life stories of the spectacular lives led by England’s aristocrats, and Bailey has provided a page-turning chronicle of the Fitzwilliam coal-mining dynasty and their breathtaking Wentworth estate (the largest private home in England) and the downfall of a way of life.