Earl of Darlington
Earl of Darlington is a title that has been created twice, each time in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first time was in 1722 for the Baroness von Kielmansegg, half-sister1 of King George I. She was created Baroness Brentford at the same time. This creation was for life only, and so the titles expired on her death in 1730.
The second creation came in 1754 in favour of Henry Vane, 3rd Baron Barnard. For more information on this creation, which became extinct in 1891 (see Baron Barnard).
Countess of Darlington, First Creation (1722)
↑Jump back a sectionIn fiction
The Earl of Darlington was a character in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel The Remains of the Day. He was the lord of Darlington Hall. Among his employees were the butler Stevens, his father, and the housekeeper Miss Kempton.
During the 1930s, the Earl hosted numerous conferences and secret meetings between Germany, the United Kingdom, and other European powers in Darlington Hall. The Germans manipulated the Earl so that he persuaded the British government to negotiate the appeasement peace treaty in its favor, which eventually resulted in the outbreak of the Second World War.
The Earl died around the late 1950s. Afterwards, his heirs auctioned off Darlington Hall and all of its belongings in order to raise money to pay for death duties and other taxes.
The novel was adapted into a 1993 film by Merchant Ivory Productions starring Anthony Hopkins as Stevens and Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton. Lord Darlington was played by James Fox.
Note
1 Sophia has often, but erroneously, been asserted to have been mistress of King George I of Great Britain and Ireland: in fact, she was his half-sister. Court ‘observers’ were apparently unable to fathom that George I would have a woman among his intimates without being intimate with her. According to vol. 14 of the Complete Peerage: “The stories that Sophia Charlotte was mistress of George I were demolished in Ragnild Hatton, George I, Elector and King, 1879, pp. 23–4, 134–5.”
