Was “Toppy” a top? The very fruity & flamboyant tale of Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey
He was both gay son and thot daughter
Mark
At this point, there’s nothing surprising about learning a member of the English peerage was a little bit fruity. But there’s fruity, and then there’s fabulous. Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, took fruitiness to new heights in his brief life, and left behind a trail of glitter for the rest of us to follow. He was both gay son and thot daughter: Anyone who’s worn a too-loud outfit to a somber family ceremony is in Paget’s debt, though they might not know it.
Paget, sometimes known as “Toppy,” sometimes known as “the dancing marquess,” was nothing if not a relatable LGBTQ+ icon. He spent the family money recklessly, took any and every chance to dress up in insane gowns, hats, costumes, and jewels, and became known as the most famous landed homosexual of his era. If iced coffee had been an option back then, he would have been mainlining it.
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Paget packed quite a lot of action into his very brief life. Before dying at 29 of tuberculosis, Paget married his first cousin (as was the style at the time), inherited his family’s fortune, and promptly set to work creating a theater devoted to putting on plays that would allow Paget to dress in the fanciest costumes imaginable. Paget mounted productions ranging from Oscar Wilde comedies (a natural choice!) to comic sketches, fashion shows, and Shakepeare dramas. Along with his troupe of actors, he performed these shows in the family castle—where he tore down the preexisting chapel to create a 150-seat theater, naturally—and on the road in a traveling caravan. His wife, who at this point was starting to get the hint, soon filed for divorce. But Paget just kept on designing the extravagant, extremely fruity life he wanted to live.
So modern were the exploits of Toppy that not one but two separate UK productions focus on bringing his story to life in the past year. A production at the Bristol Old Vic last summer, How to Win Against History, captured Paget’s wild exploits in song. This year, Paget’s story is coming to the screen via Madfabulous, a biopic starring It’s a Sin‘s Callum Scott Howells and Rupert Everett premiering at BFI Flare. Paget might not have been made for the times he lived in—his current ancestors say he’s always been seen as a “bit of a giggle” in the family line—but he’d fit right in with the gays of today.
He also seemed to fit right in with the gays of the past. Recently, a new trove of photos was unearthed showing Paget and his traveling crew enjoying the gardens of Plas Newydd, a Welsh estate bearing the same name as the historic house an 18th century lesbian throuple once called home.
The photos were a remarkable find: photos of Paget and his troupe are rare for a depressing, but sadly predictable, reason. After Paget’s untimely death, he was seen as such an embarrassment to his family that his diaries, letters, and presumably personal photos were torched lest they get into the hands of the press, which already had a field day with Paget while he lived. Then again, Paget seems to have enjoyed his life to the fullest in his 29 years without caring what other people thought about it. The dancing marquess is one of the few, happy examples of a queer person getting their hands on a lot of money and actually being able to use it to live the life they wanted.
But was Toppy, you know, a top? Sadly, we have no idea. Because we don’t have many firsthand accounts of life with the Marquess—and because tabloid accounts ran riot with the facts while he lived—we don’t have evidence that Paget had partners of either sex. We can deduce, however, that Paget may have identified as trans in a different era. In his productions, he seized upon every possible opportunity to dress in drag, which, for trans people, is a tale as old as time. And did we mention he looked damn good doing it?
It’s a shame we don’t know more about Paget’s inner life, but that’s where projects like Madfabulous come in. Paget was nothing if not a character possessed of a profound, joyful imagination, which makes his story an irresistible prompt for queer writers seeking out stories of LGBTQ+ life in the past. Paget’s world might have been stranger than fiction while he lived, but it’s just strange enough to make for some pretty fabulous fictions in the present.
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