‘The most attentive hostess in the world’

Abstract

Throughout her political career, Mary politicized the space around her, particularly her family homes. The chapter examines how Mary used the home as a political tool. It explores her political entertaining at Hatfield House as Marchioness of Salisbury, examining the influential role she played in political life during the late 1850s and early 1860s. Using the parliamentary debates that foreshadowed the Second Reform Act of 1867 as a backdrop, this chapter goes on to explore the symbiosis between the political space Mary constructed and the agenda of the national polity. This analysis is further developed by a consideration of how Mary used the family home for political purposes during her second marriage. Throughout, Mary’s use of political space is understood as an expression of her agency and ideology, rather than the physical manifestation of the obligation she felt as a wife.