Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury

Family background

Shrewsbury, who was born at Eaton Place, Belgravia, London, was the only son and heir of Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury and 4th Earl Talbot. His grandfather, The 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, had inherited the earldoms from a very distant cousin, and had to prove his claim to the premier earldoms of Great Britain and Ireland on the Roll in the House of Lords by demonstrating his descent from the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury and 2nd Earl of Waterford. Shrewsbury was the nephew of: Constance, who married The 8th Marquess of Lothian; Gertrude, who married The 13th Earl of Pembroke; and Adelaide, who married The 3rd Earl Brownlow, the brother of Theresa, a notable hostess, who married The 6th Marquess of Londonderry.

Education and marriage

Lord Shrewsbury was educated at Eton College and inherited his titles when only 16 years of age. On 21 June 1882, at the age of 19, he eloped with an older married woman, Ellen, née Palmer-Morewood, wife of commoner, Alfred Edward Miller Mundy of Shipley Hall, whom she had married in 1873. Ellen was a granddaughter of The 7th Baron Byron (a cousin of The 6th Baron Byron, the famous poet), and already had a daughter. Shrewsbury's heir, Lord Ingestre, was born less than three months after the marriage of his parents. Ingestre died in the lifetime of his parents, but had several children, including The 21st Earl of Shrewsbury and 21st Earl of Waterford, the father of the current Earl.

Before his marriage, in July 1879 Shrewsbury began an affair with the actress Lillie Langtry, although then married to her husband Edward; in January 1880, Langtry and Shrewsbury were reportedly planning to run away together, but the relationship was superseded by his elopement with his future Countess.