Caroline Gardiner
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| Portrayed by Carey Mulligan | |
| Full Name | Caroline Amelia Gardiner |
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| Associated Noble House(s) | Barony of Ackland, Barony of Parkhurst |
| Date of Birth | March 17, 1790 |
| Father | Frederick Gardiner |
| Father's Rank | Baron Ackland |
| Mother | Cecily Seabrook |
| Mother's Rank | Baroness Ackland |
| Town Residence | 25 Bruton Street, Ackland House |
| Year of Debut | 1808 (Bath), 1811 (London) |
| Dowry | £10,000 |
Miss Caroline Gardiner is the daughter of the late Frederick Gardiner, the 16th Baron Ackland and his wife. She is the sister to the current baron. She was created by Liz, and is played by Betsy.
Early Life (1790-1808)
Born March 17, 1790, Caroline is the youngest child of Baron Ackland and his wife. She has five older siblings, two sisters and three brothers. She dislikes discord and seeks to maintain harmony both within her family and her friends, though she is loathe to take a firm position on a particular side and thus pit herself against someone else. She is not particularly chatty, but neither is she taciturn. None of the Gardiner children were particularly aware of their family's dwindling finances when they were younger, though the boys figured it out when they went to school and the girls picked it up from there. Her older sisters married respectably, particularly her sister Lucie, who married Baron Parkhurst. These marriages infused some much needed capital into the family, but the real lifesaver was her brother Samuel's marriage to Poppy Tichbourne, whose father agreed to settle the family's debts in exchange for his daughter becoming a baroness.
Caroline's mother died in 1796, when Caroline was only six years old. Her father's widowed sister, Lady Sutton, moved in with the family and stayed until 1799, when Caroline's father died. At this point, Caroline moved in with her sister, Lady Parkhurst, and lived there for the next nine years, until 1808 when she went to live in Bath with her brother Samuel and his wife Poppy in order to enter society and make a match.
Bath (1808-1810)
Caroline enjoyed her time with her brother and his wife in Bath. She made several friends in Bath and was generally well received. The family had high hopes for Caroline's attachment to James Bellwood, a young naval officer in town with his sister and her husband, and everyone (including Caroline) expected them to marry. By the end of the season of 1808, however, he had not proposed and in fact left town without a word to any of the Gardiners. Just when Caroline had resolved to forget him, he wrote to her to assure her of his affections and once again, her hopes were encouraged by her family. The two exchanged letters for six months, though his correspondence grew increasingly infrequent.
Then, in April of 1809, a friend from London happened to mention in a letter to Lady Ackland that the very rich daughter of a mutual acquaintance was being escorted by naval officer who had spent the previous season in Bath. The Acklands did their best to assess the situation and handle things delicately, but a marriage announcement in the papers served as a rude awakening to Caroline's dreams of marital bliss as Mrs. Bellwood. Everyone in Bath learned of Caroline's bad news and while most agreed that she was not to blame, two unsuccessful seasons followed. Despite these troubles, Caroline remains cheerful and generally happy, which may be somewhat surprising given her unlucky bouts with love. She tries to see the best in people and in bad situations, though this can lend itself to being blind to people's faults (like James Bellwood's). She also assumes that people are being truthful, and she is prone to being duped.
London (1811)
Now, at age twenty-one, Caroline has come to London in an attempt to leave her past behind. She knows she is getting long in the tooth, though she is not desperate yet. She has £10,000 and a pretty face to acquit herself, as well as connections to two barons (her sister Lucie's husband and her own brother). She is aware of her family's financial difficulties, though she is also aware of their improving situation. That said, she does not wish to become a burden on her family. If she does not marry this year, she would not be opposed to the idea of becoming a governess, though she still has enough naivety to hope for a romantic ending to her story.
She likes children and was happy to accompany her nieces and nephews to the park with their nanny. She is diplomatic and well suited to resolving disputes between the children, both skills that will serve her well should she become a governess. She also has excellent penmanship and is talented at charcoal sketches. She is intelligent and inquisitive and enjoys reading. She is appropriately educated in history, geography, and she knows enough mathematics to manage a household. She does not enjoy politics. She cannot play the harp but she is interested in learning. She does, however, play the pianoforte. She speaks French well, can manage enough Italian to follow an opera, and has given German some effort.