Aubrey Sayre
Portrayed by Alessio Boni | |
Full Name | Aubrey Augustus Sayre |
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Title | 4th Baron Hunstanton |
Associated Noble House(s) | Hunstanton, Prestwood, Hawksley |
Date of Birth | 12 February 1777 |
Father | Adam Sayre |
Father's Rank | 3rd Baron Hunstanton |
Mother | Marion Sayre née Stowe |
Mother's Rank | Daughter of the 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury |
Town Residence | Hunstanton House, 50 Berkeley Square |
Income | £7,500 p.a. |
School | Eton |
University | Christ Church, Oxford |
Year Attained Title | 1782 |
Year of Marriage | 1805 |
Spouse | Matilda Sayre née Montague |
Spouse's Rank | Daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Truro and St. Austell |
Spouse's Death | 1809 |
Issue | Eugenia (b. 1806) |
Aubrey Sayre, 4th Baron Hunstanton was born 12 February 1777 to Adam Sayre, 3rd Baron Hunstanton, and Marion Sayre née Stowe. He inherited his title at the age of five after his father's death. As the event left him and his brother Alexander orphans, they were taken in and raised by their maternal grandparents Thomas Stowe, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, and Doris Stowe née Sothersby, Countess of Shrewsbury. In young adulthood, he built up a reputation as a formidable sportsman and became well-known amongst the ton for his wild behaviour. At the beginning of the hunting season of 1797, he met Lady Matilda Montague, daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Truro and St. Austell, who was to be his future wife. He spent eight years pursuing her and they were married in January 1805.
Before Aubrey's marriage, he had further gained notoriety through a series of affairs with various beau monde wives and widows. Although deeply (some would say obsessively) in love with his wife, he resumed such liaisons during her pregnancy. After the birth of his daughter Eugenia on 27 December 1806, he admitted his infidelities to Matilda and thus began a period of marital discord which lasted until Lady Hunstanton's death in a riding accident at the beginning of winter in 1809.
Aubrey is a reckless, passionate, and charismatic man but since his wife's death he has been consumed by grief. He remained at his ancestral home Hunstanton Lodge in Exmoor, Somerset, until May 1811, when he received a letter from his paternal great-aunt Mary Leven née Sayre, Countess of Nevern, which promises to pay off his current debts and settle her fortune on him in her will, if he remarries to a woman she approves of (i.e. previously unmarried and of a good ton family).
As his lifestyle before his wife's death far outstripped his income, Aubrey has accepted the financial necessity of remarriage according to his great-aunt's scheme and has taken up residence with Eugenia at Hunstanton House in Berkeley Square.
Aubrey is played by Casey.