Grenville Murray was the illegitimate son of the first Duke (according to Beckett) or the second Duke (according to DNB). This relationship was acknowledged by the first Duke who paid his mother, Emily Murray Mills, an allowance. Murray's life was every bit as colourful as that of his father and was greatly influenced by his bitterness about the way he and his mother were treated by the Dukes. 

The Failed Diplomat

Murray could never develop a respect for his peers but was lucky in attracting the attention of Lord Palmerston, who propelled him into the diplomatic service. Palmerston also protected him against dismissal despite a number of breaches of protocol and incompetent actions. Murray was always more interested in journalism and mocking the aristocracy than in representing Britain's aristocratic government. In 1868, after 13 years of conflict with the residents of Odessa and a degree of bungling that took an Act of Parliament to resolve, he returned to England to concentrate on writing. 

Horsewhipping and Exile

Murray's acerbic wit and total disrespect for the aristocracy, however, led to his rapid downfall in England. In 1869, he published a libellous attack on the second Lord Carrington of Upton (Robert John; died 17 March 1868).  This resulted in Murray being horsewhipped at the door of the Conservative Club in St James Street, London on 22 June by Carrington's son, Charles Robert. Murray prosecuted but foolishly denied authorship of the article. He won the case for assault just a month later on 22 July, but no punishment was handed down to Carrington. Instead,  Murray had been charged at Bow Street five days earlier with perjury and remanded until 29 July. He had little choice but to flee and he exiled himself to Paris. There he took the title of Compte de Rethel d'Aragon, after that of his Spanish wife. 

Young Brown

Murray was a prolific writer in Paris and these writings were influenced by his bitterness about his birth and treatment of his mother, his failure as a diplomat, and the beating by Carrington. This  bitterness poured out in a novel Young Brown or the Law of Inheritance. This first appeared in the Cornhill Magazine and caused quite a scandal. The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos was barely disguised as Sir Odo-Plantagenet-Clansgold-Kinsgear-Revel-Wyldwyl, K.G., Duke of Courthope and Revel. The scandal was partly caused through readers' believing, incorrectly, that the Duke had a child by his sister; an unsurprising mistake given the lack of clarity in some of the prose. The other cause for scandal, according to the author, was a belief that a Peer could not engage in such appalling conduct, but given the earlier conduct of the Prince Regent, the Earl of Berkeley and others, it would be a surprise if people were not aware of the temptations and excesses in the upper echelons of society. 

It is now impossible to say what elements of the book are modelled on truth and what are pure fiction, but it is more fiction than fact. The text is often entertaining and occasionally shows a fine turn of prose. But it suffers from the excruciating prose given to the inhabitants of Wakefield-in-the-Marsh; the village where Madge meets the Duke and conceives Young Brown. For example, after Madge discovers she is pregnant and the Duke ignores her letter informing him, she agrees to marry Tom Brown. Here is Brown's proposal to her:

"Madge," cried the simple fellow at last, and there was a natural pathos in his coarse appeal. "Oi carn't a stond it no mawer. I'll go an' list for a sodjer an you wun't tayk oi axes yow. Oi'd ha' mayd yow a honist mon an yow wud wed..."

Young Brown was published in 1874 and is republished by Elibron. 

Chronology

Sources

DNB; Beckett.