Background
Lady Susan was born on 7 April 1839, the only daughter of British politician Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle and Lady Susan Hamilton (daughter of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton and Susan Beckford).
Lady Susan was born on 7 April 1839, the only daughter of British politician Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle and Lady Susan Hamilton (daughter of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton and Susan Beckford).
Lady Susan was a bridesmaid to Victoria, Princess Royal and two years later became the wife of Lord Adolphus Vane-Tempest. She had four brothers including Henry Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne and Lord Arthur Clinton (who was involved in the 1870 Boulton and Park scandal). In 1860, her mother would marry a Belgian, Jean Alexis Opdebeck.
On 25 January 1858, Lady Susan stood as one of the bridesmaids to Victoria, Princess Royal at her wedding to Emperor Frederick III at Street James"s Palace.
She was depicted in the John Phillip painting which commemorated the event. Sometime after her husband"s death which occurred on 11 June 1864, she became the mistress of the, who would later succeed his mother, Queen Victoria to the British throne as King Edward VII. According to author John Van der Kiste, Susan bore the Prince an illegitimate child in 1871.
He cites in his book Edward VII"s Children that one of Susan"s confidantes wrote to Edward advising him that the "crisis was due within two or three months", which is presumably a reference to Susan"s pregnancy. She allegedly gave birth to the Prince"s child in Ramsgate at the end of 1871.
Nothing however, is known of the baby"s sex or subsequent fate because when Susan died on 6 September 1875 at the age of 36, she took the secret with her to the grave.