Consuelo Montagu (née Yznaga), Duchess of Manchester

Sitter in 7 portraits
Consuelo Yznaga was a Cuban-American socialite from Louisiana, who caused a stir in London with her uninhibited nature and fondness for playing the banjo. In 1876, she married George Montagu, Viscount Mandeville, the notoriously rakish and dissolute heir to the Duchy of Manchester. The carriages of the 1,200 guests at their New York wedding caused a traffic jam along Broadway. The Manchesters (who later divorced) were part of the Prince of Wales's 'Marlborough House set', and Consuelo used this social leverage to act as an Anglo-American marriage broker for later generations. She nonetheless disapproved of her son's secret marriage to an American railroad heiress, Helena Zimmerman.