Lady Sarah Napier

Lady Sarah Napier (née Lennox, later Bunbury; 14 February 1745 – 26 August 1826) was a British aristocrat who became notorious for her status as a royal favourite and for her scandalous extramarital affairs. One of the famous Lennox sisters, she was the frequent subject of gossip and press coverage during the middle of the Georgian era.

Her father was Charles, 2nd Duke of Richmond, a wealthy peer and grandson of King Charles II through an illegitimate line. The Duke held court appointments and frequently brought his young daughter with him to Kensington Palace, where she became a royal favourite. After her father's death, she spent her late childhood in Ireland before returning to London for her first season. The future King George III fell in love with her over a two-year period, causing Sarah to become a pawn of political factions hoping to influence him. The relationship ended upon his engagement to a German princess.

Lady Sarah’s subsequent marriage in 1762 with Charles Bunbury, an MP and horse racing enthusiast, was unhappy. Six years later, she scandalously had a child and eloped with her lover, Lord William Gordon. Bunbury successfully petitioned for divorce, a rare event for the time. Her activities attracted press attention and led to a 12-year effective exile from society. In 1781, Sarah wed George Napier in what would be a happy marriage living modestly in Ireland; they had eight children, four of whom would become prominent officers in the British Army or Navy.

For a long time, Sarah remained a conspicuous symbol of feminine dissoluteness often attributed by the public to the upper classes. Her connection with George III played a part in shaping his reputation as a puritan suffering from repressed sexuality. Moreover, the Lennox sisters' surviving correspondence provide almost a century's worth of insight into the ordinary lives of aristocratic women in the Georgian era. Twentieth‑century authors drew on details from Sarah’s letters when writing books about her life, including Stella Tillyard, whose biography of the sisters was adapted into a 1999 television drama series.