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| Leopold I of the Belgians @Wikipedia |
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| Charlotte & Leopold @Somerset & Wood |
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| Charlotte & Leopold @Wikipedia |
Husband of:
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| Wedding of Leopold & Louise-Marie @Wikipedia |
2. Louise-Marie d'Orleans (1812-1850), mar 1832
About Louise-Marie.
"On 9 August 1832, Leopold married the 20-year-old Louis of Orleans, the eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe. The bride was a slight woman with blue eyes, blonde hair, a small mouth and a big nose. The nose was typical of her mother's Bourbon-Sicily family. Her maternal grandfather was King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily, nicknamed 'Nasone' (The Nose). . . ." (A Throne in Brussels: 54)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . His appearance had been preserved in many portraits, which record the small and well-cut features, dark colouring, curved yet firm lips, rather long and pointed nose, and the penetrating and severe expression of the eyes. His qualities showed themselves in his life --- before fifteen, a devoted son to the ailing father; afterwards the help and stay of his House in its vicissitudes; the noble friend to his elder brother; the eager soldier; and, later on, the wise and enlightened ruler." (The Princess Charlotte of Wales: An Illustrated Monograph: 114)
Leopold's persona or character.
". . . Leopold I was a man of rare scholastic attainments; and was not ignorant of that science and art requisite to make skillful moves on the military chessboard. He was termed the Nestor of Kings. . . ." (Life of Maximilian I, late emperor of Mexico: 36)
A man with a voracious sexual appetite.
"Leopold's nights, unlike his wife's' were not spent alone. Like his brother Ernst, he was a man with a voracious sexual appetite. As Louise was unable to satisfy his hunger, he had to find satisfaction elsewhere. But the women sharing the Leopich's bed did not make him a happier person. Being a cold and calculating person who used people but trusted no one, he did not allow himself to become emotionally attached to anyone. In his later years, when he had grown old, this attitude changed. He took a permanent mistress, possibly because he felt the need for someone who could take care of him in old age." (A Throne in Brussels: 63)
Leopold I's personal treasure.
"Leopold also became one of the owners of the Belgian National Bank, a private institution that was granted a monopoly to issue money in Belgium. His real estate consisted of castles and domains in Belgium, totalling 5,300 hectares (12,720 acres). Outside Belgium, Leopold was known to own the castle of Niederfullbach near Coburg, a castle in Bohemia, forests and farms in Moravia and Hungary, a house in Vienna, and the Villa Giulia (Villa d'Este) on Lake Como in Italy. The latter had once been the Italian home of his first mother-in-law, British Queen Caroline (George IV's estranged wife). When Leopold died, he left his children 13.2 million francs in real estate, 25.2 million in stocks, and 20 million on a deposit of the Rothschild Bank -- a total of 54.8 million francs (175.2 million pounds or $292 million at today's value). . . ." (A Throne in Brussels: 61)
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| Leopold I of Belgium @Getty Images |
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| Prince Leopold of Belgium, c1831 |
Charlotte of Wales.
"One incident was now imminent, which proved to be turning-point in Princess Charlotte's life. It was on Sunday, the 12th, that a grand state banquet was given at Carlton House; and, on this one occasion of her joining in the festivities, the Princess first saw Prince Leopold. As the room gradually filled ---the great crimson drawing-room, where the state receptions were held---her attention was caught by a singularly handsome young man, who was occupied in paying some attention to a young lady whom she knew. She watched him. She noticed his tall, soldier-like figure, and quiet, dignified manner, and, turning to a friend, observed how strange it was that the young lady did not seem more gratified by his attentions. Prince Leopold was not introduced to the Princess Charlotte on that evening, and, although he excited her admiration, he fancy remained, for the present, untouched; in fact, her thoughts were at the moment occupied by another---a Prussian Prince, who had come over with his cousin, Frederick William III---a man seventeen years older than herself, but whose society she much liked, receiving his visits at Warwick House, as she received those of all the princes and great personages then in London. This Prince only fulfilled to her the mission of Juliet in 'The Gardener's Daughter'--- x x x in fact, a sort of preliminary canter before the serious race. At the dinner of the 12th, Princess Charlotte appeared as the fiancee of the Prince of Orange; and, what with the man she admired, the man she liked, and the man she did not like, her hands must have been full." (The Princess Charlotte of Wales: 89)
Louise-Marie of Orleans.
"On August 9 1832, Leopold married the 20-year-old Louise of Orleans, the eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe. The bride was a slight woman with blue eyes, blonde hair, a small mouth and a big nose. The nose was typical of her mother's Bourbon-Sicily family. Her maternal grandfather was King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily, nicknamed 'Nasone' (The Nose). Her paternal grandfather, Duke Philippe of Orleans, had had a nickname, too, but for political reasons. He was Philippe Egalite, because he had chosen the side of the Revolution in 1789. Grandpapa had cast the decisive vote which, on 21 January 1793, had brought his cousin, King Louis XVI, to the guillotine." (A Throne in Brussels)
"One incident was now imminent, which proved to be turning-point in Princess Charlotte's life. It was on Sunday, the 12th, that a grand state banquet was given at Carlton House; and, on this one occasion of her joining in the festivities, the Princess first saw Prince Leopold. As the room gradually filled ---the great crimson drawing-room, where the state receptions were held---her attention was caught by a singularly handsome young man, who was occupied in paying some attention to a young lady whom she knew. She watched him. She noticed his tall, soldier-like figure, and quiet, dignified manner, and, turning to a friend, observed how strange it was that the young lady did not seem more gratified by his attentions. Prince Leopold was not introduced to the Princess Charlotte on that evening, and, although he excited her admiration, he fancy remained, for the present, untouched; in fact, her thoughts were at the moment occupied by another---a Prussian Prince, who had come over with his cousin, Frederick William III---a man seventeen years older than herself, but whose society she much liked, receiving his visits at Warwick House, as she received those of all the princes and great personages then in London. This Prince only fulfilled to her the mission of Juliet in 'The Gardener's Daughter'--- x x x in fact, a sort of preliminary canter before the serious race. At the dinner of the 12th, Princess Charlotte appeared as the fiancee of the Prince of Orange; and, what with the man she admired, the man she liked, and the man she did not like, her hands must have been full." (The Princess Charlotte of Wales: 89)
Louise-Marie of Orleans.
"On August 9 1832, Leopold married the 20-year-old Louise of Orleans, the eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe. The bride was a slight woman with blue eyes, blonde hair, a small mouth and a big nose. The nose was typical of her mother's Bourbon-Sicily family. Her maternal grandfather was King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily, nicknamed 'Nasone' (The Nose). Her paternal grandfather, Duke Philippe of Orleans, had had a nickname, too, but for political reasons. He was Philippe Egalite, because he had chosen the side of the Revolution in 1789. Grandpapa had cast the decisive vote which, on 21 January 1793, had brought his cousin, King Louis XVI, to the guillotine." (A Throne in Brussels)
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| Leopold I of Belgium |
Leopold I's lovers were:
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| Hortense de Beauharnais @Wikipedia |
Lover in 1807.
"In 1807 at age 17 Leopold accompanied his brother Ernest, Duke of Coburg, to Paris to submit a petition to Napoleon to enlarge the Duchy of Coburg. Napoleon thought that the young Prince Leopold was one of 'the handsomest of all Europe.' He was not alone to notice this. Leopold managed to attract the attention of Empress Josephine and her daughter Hortense. Rumors were that Hortense managed to seduce the prince, but how close the relationship became is unknown. Hortense was seven years older than Leopold." (Flemish DNA & Ancestry: History of Three Families Over Five Centuries: 333)
" . . . Leopold had a charming manner, dark good looks, and powerful sexual charisma. Thanks to his sister Julia, he became a favorite with the Russian court. He was made a cadet in the Imperial Guard at the tender age of five and a general when he was twelve, although he did not engage in actual combat. At seventeen, he visited Paris in an attempt to gain a position in Napoleon's entourage but instead began a passionate affair with Napoleon's lovely twenty-four-year-old stepdaughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, who had recently separated from her husband. There were tales that he had also been close to her mother Josephine. 'Here if you ask a lady to be seated, she goes to bed. That is the habit here,' he decided." (Williams. Becoming Queen Victoria: 90)
"Napoleon invaded the duchy in 1806, confiscating much of the family's property, for which Duke Ernst I obtained restitution. To thank Napoleon, Ernst and Leopold went to Paris, where the handsome Leopold turned down Bonaparte’s offer to be his adjutant, but whilst there conquered several young ladies’ hearts. He was also rumoured to have had an affair with Hortense de Beauharnais, Empress Josephine's daughter and wife of Napoleon's brother, Prince Louis Bonaparte." (EHFA)
Keeping appearances up.
" . . . Leopold I, the first Belgian king, had a mistress, Arcadie Cadet, for whom he arranged a marriage with an officer from his staff, Friedrich Meyer. . . ." (Harry's polo shirt, 2005, July)
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| Karoline Bauer Countess von Montgomery |
2) Karoline Bauer (1807-1878)
Lover in 1828-1830.
First encounter & a questionable affair.
" . . . One night when Caroline was playing in Dresden, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg happened to be in the royal box. Leopold was visiting his kinsman, the King of Saxony, and was still deep in mourning for his wife, Princess Charlotte. He saw an extraordinary resemblance between Caroline Bauer and his dead wife. After one or two private meetings with the actress, Leopold had his chief counselor Christian Stockmar persuade Caroline to come to England with her mother and become Leopold's morganatic wife. Unmoved by questions of family honor, Stockmar persuaded his aunt and cousin to accept Prince Leopold's terms, which included a modest annuity. The women came to England, were housed in a secluded villa, and met with an astonishingly cold reception from Leopold. According to Caroline, she went through a form of wedding ceremony with Leopold, at which her cousin Christian was present, but she and Leopold had sexual relations only for a matter of weeks. Otherwise all that the prince required of her on his rare visits was to sing arias and read tedious German books. Leopold listened and 'drizzled,' picking out silver and gold threads from the trimming on old uniforms, and storing them in a little box so that the precious metals could be reused. Bauer claims that Leopold was such an industrious drizzler that he salvaged enough silver to make a tureen. This, with a characteristic mixture of pomp and parsimony, he presented to his niece, Victoria. After Leopold moved her to an even more isolated house near Claremont. his English country estate, Caroline and her mother could take no more. They escaped back to Germany, and Caroline returned to the stage. Unlike Pauline Panam, she did her annuity and probably a pleasant country estate near Coburg. She was apparently invited to the Palace." (We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals: 108)
Escape from a life of seclusion and boredom.
"Eventually Leopold found himself a German mistress, the actress Karoline Bauer---a respectable woman and cousin of his adviser, Baron Stockmar. Leopold persuaded Bauer to give up her career and come to live in England. Her mother came too, to add the prerequisite false air of propriety, and the two women were discreetly installed in a villa at Regent's Park. Here Leopold kept Karoline closeted in stultifying boredom, and on a tight budget (he was notoriously penny-pinching), refusing to go out in public with her. The couple's sole recreation consisted in Karoline's reading aloud to Leopold while he cranked away at a 'drizzling box'--- a then popular device for extracting from tassels, epaulettes, and lace the gold and silver dust that, thus recycled, could then be sold. When Leopold stayed at his other home at Claremont in Surrey, Bauer was kept in strict seclusion in a small house nearby, forbidden contact with the untainted young Princess Victoria, when she came on visits. In 1830, unable to bear it any longer, Bauer escaped back to Germany, where she later published two volumes of memoirs." (Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion: 243)
Dead wife's look-alike.
"Eleven years later, during which his close friends said he still grieved for Charlotte, Leopold saw an actress called Caroline Bauer who cannily resembled Princess Charlotte. Leopold sent his chamberlain to ask permission to call on her and within days he had proposed marriage. This action was totally out of character for the cautious, somewhat cold Leopold, however, Caroline came to England with her mother and took up residence at Longwood House, a few miles from Claremont. By mid-1829 the liaison was over, and the actress and her mother returned to Berlin where Caroline resumed her career." (EHFA)
" . . . A frightful instance of such being so is to be found in the recently published posthumous memoirs of the German actress, Karoline Bauer. She was the niece of Baron Stockmar, the man of business to Prince Leopold, who married Princess Charlotte of England, and afterwards became King of the Belgians. He had an allowance from this country of 50,000 pounds per annum, which he enjoyed after his wife's death. Stockmar, besides his other functions, filled that of pimp to his employer. Leopold expressed great admiration of Stockmar's niece, Karoline, and the latter contrived that she should become the prince's mistress. When this was effected, a residence was provided for the young actress and her mother near Claremont, the place where the disconsolate widower, as Leopold was supposed to be, passed his time in mourning the death of his beloved wife, Charlotte! Stockmar all the time arranged matters so cleverly that nothing was known for certain of the immoral relations existing between the disconsolate widower at Claremont and the young lady living in the house hard by. There were, however, unpleasant rumours circulating in the neighbourhood. And Mddle. Bauer thus describes an unexpected recontre with the present Queen and her mother, the Duchess of Kent . . . Thus it will be seen that the Queen's mother, although fully cognisant that her brother was carrying on an illicit amour with a German actress, lent herself to maintain the popular delusion that he was mourning in solitude, sad and almost broken-hearted, the death of his English wife! And the people, sympathising with the imaginary grief of the inconsolable and bereaved prince, offered no opposition to the continuance of the enormous sum of 50,000 pounds per annum voted for him! And out of this sum, extracted from the people's pocket, annuities were settled upon Stockmar the pimp, who became a great favourite at Windsor Castle when Prince Albert was alive, impregnating him with a hatred of constitutionalism, and a strong predilection for despotism. Even after Leopold became King of the Belgians, these annual grants were secured upon Stockmar and Mddle Bauer! . . . ." (A Pretty Royal Scandal in Trove)
First encounter with Leopold.
" . . . Her mother Christina Stockmar Bauer was a native Coburger. . . When Herr Bauer, a soldier, died young, the Bauer family fell on hard times. Caroline was able to persuade her widowed mother to allow her to go on the stage, and she quickly found success as an actress. One night when Caroline was playing in Dresden, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha happened to be in the royal box . . . He saw an extraordinary resemblance between Caroline Bauer and his dead wife. After one or two private meetings with the actress, Leopold had his chief counsellor Christian Stockmar persuade Caroline to come to England with her mother and become Leopold's morganatic wife." (We Two: Victoria & Albert, Rulers, Partners, Rivals: 108)
Karoline Bauer's other lovers were:
1) Adolf Herzfeld (1800-1874), German actor, son of Jacob Herzfeld
"In the spring of 1826 I was touring in Hamburg at the theatre under the management of Jacob Herzfeld. His son Adolf, then twenty-six years old, a fiery, gifted artist and amiable man, played the lovers with me, and soon, very naturally, he loved me really outside his theatrical part. . . . " (Posthumous Memoirs of Karoline Bauer: 193)
2) Karl Posch
Karoline's personal & family background.
"Caroline Bauer was Christian Stockmar's first cousin. Her mother, Christina Stockmar Bauer, was a native Coburger who as a girl played with the ducal daughters Sophie, Antoinette, and Juliana of Saxe-Coburg. When Her Bauer, a soldier, died yoing, the Bauer family fell on hard times. Caroline was able to persuade her widowed mother to allow her to go on the stage, and she quickly found success as an actress. . . ." (We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals: 108)First encounter & a questionable affair.
" . . . One night when Caroline was playing in Dresden, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg happened to be in the royal box. Leopold was visiting his kinsman, the King of Saxony, and was still deep in mourning for his wife, Princess Charlotte. He saw an extraordinary resemblance between Caroline Bauer and his dead wife. After one or two private meetings with the actress, Leopold had his chief counselor Christian Stockmar persuade Caroline to come to England with her mother and become Leopold's morganatic wife. Unmoved by questions of family honor, Stockmar persuaded his aunt and cousin to accept Prince Leopold's terms, which included a modest annuity. The women came to England, were housed in a secluded villa, and met with an astonishingly cold reception from Leopold. According to Caroline, she went through a form of wedding ceremony with Leopold, at which her cousin Christian was present, but she and Leopold had sexual relations only for a matter of weeks. Otherwise all that the prince required of her on his rare visits was to sing arias and read tedious German books. Leopold listened and 'drizzled,' picking out silver and gold threads from the trimming on old uniforms, and storing them in a little box so that the precious metals could be reused. Bauer claims that Leopold was such an industrious drizzler that he salvaged enough silver to make a tureen. This, with a characteristic mixture of pomp and parsimony, he presented to his niece, Victoria. After Leopold moved her to an even more isolated house near Claremont. his English country estate, Caroline and her mother could take no more. They escaped back to Germany, and Caroline returned to the stage. Unlike Pauline Panam, she did her annuity and probably a pleasant country estate near Coburg. She was apparently invited to the Palace." (We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals: 108)
Escape from a life of seclusion and boredom.
"Eventually Leopold found himself a German mistress, the actress Karoline Bauer---a respectable woman and cousin of his adviser, Baron Stockmar. Leopold persuaded Bauer to give up her career and come to live in England. Her mother came too, to add the prerequisite false air of propriety, and the two women were discreetly installed in a villa at Regent's Park. Here Leopold kept Karoline closeted in stultifying boredom, and on a tight budget (he was notoriously penny-pinching), refusing to go out in public with her. The couple's sole recreation consisted in Karoline's reading aloud to Leopold while he cranked away at a 'drizzling box'--- a then popular device for extracting from tassels, epaulettes, and lace the gold and silver dust that, thus recycled, could then be sold. When Leopold stayed at his other home at Claremont in Surrey, Bauer was kept in strict seclusion in a small house nearby, forbidden contact with the untainted young Princess Victoria, when she came on visits. In 1830, unable to bear it any longer, Bauer escaped back to Germany, where she later published two volumes of memoirs." (Queen Victoria: A Biographical Companion: 243)
Dead wife's look-alike.
"Eleven years later, during which his close friends said he still grieved for Charlotte, Leopold saw an actress called Caroline Bauer who cannily resembled Princess Charlotte. Leopold sent his chamberlain to ask permission to call on her and within days he had proposed marriage. This action was totally out of character for the cautious, somewhat cold Leopold, however, Caroline came to England with her mother and took up residence at Longwood House, a few miles from Claremont. By mid-1829 the liaison was over, and the actress and her mother returned to Berlin where Caroline resumed her career." (EHFA)
" . . . A frightful instance of such being so is to be found in the recently published posthumous memoirs of the German actress, Karoline Bauer. She was the niece of Baron Stockmar, the man of business to Prince Leopold, who married Princess Charlotte of England, and afterwards became King of the Belgians. He had an allowance from this country of 50,000 pounds per annum, which he enjoyed after his wife's death. Stockmar, besides his other functions, filled that of pimp to his employer. Leopold expressed great admiration of Stockmar's niece, Karoline, and the latter contrived that she should become the prince's mistress. When this was effected, a residence was provided for the young actress and her mother near Claremont, the place where the disconsolate widower, as Leopold was supposed to be, passed his time in mourning the death of his beloved wife, Charlotte! Stockmar all the time arranged matters so cleverly that nothing was known for certain of the immoral relations existing between the disconsolate widower at Claremont and the young lady living in the house hard by. There were, however, unpleasant rumours circulating in the neighbourhood. And Mddle. Bauer thus describes an unexpected recontre with the present Queen and her mother, the Duchess of Kent . . . Thus it will be seen that the Queen's mother, although fully cognisant that her brother was carrying on an illicit amour with a German actress, lent herself to maintain the popular delusion that he was mourning in solitude, sad and almost broken-hearted, the death of his English wife! And the people, sympathising with the imaginary grief of the inconsolable and bereaved prince, offered no opposition to the continuance of the enormous sum of 50,000 pounds per annum voted for him! And out of this sum, extracted from the people's pocket, annuities were settled upon Stockmar the pimp, who became a great favourite at Windsor Castle when Prince Albert was alive, impregnating him with a hatred of constitutionalism, and a strong predilection for despotism. Even after Leopold became King of the Belgians, these annual grants were secured upon Stockmar and Mddle Bauer! . . . ." (A Pretty Royal Scandal in Trove)
First encounter with Leopold.
" . . . Her mother Christina Stockmar Bauer was a native Coburger. . . When Herr Bauer, a soldier, died young, the Bauer family fell on hard times. Caroline was able to persuade her widowed mother to allow her to go on the stage, and she quickly found success as an actress. One night when Caroline was playing in Dresden, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha happened to be in the royal box . . . He saw an extraordinary resemblance between Caroline Bauer and his dead wife. After one or two private meetings with the actress, Leopold had his chief counsellor Christian Stockmar persuade Caroline to come to England with her mother and become Leopold's morganatic wife." (We Two: Victoria & Albert, Rulers, Partners, Rivals: 108)
Karoline Bauer's other lovers were:
1) Adolf Herzfeld (1800-1874), German actor, son of Jacob Herzfeld
"In the spring of 1826 I was touring in Hamburg at the theatre under the management of Jacob Herzfeld. His son Adolf, then twenty-six years old, a fiery, gifted artist and amiable man, played the lovers with me, and soon, very naturally, he loved me really outside his theatrical part. . . . " (Posthumous Memoirs of Karoline Bauer: 193)
2) Karl Posch
"In August, 1826, the youthful lover, Karl Posch, from the Court-theatre of Neu-Strelitz, came to Berlin on a short engagement---an excellent actor and amiable brother artist. We played together in three pieces in Berlin and Charlottenburg, and with most gratifying success. . . . " (Posthumous Memoirs of Karoline Bauer: 194)
Karoline's other suitors.
"Although living under her mother's roof, and deriving a certain social consideration from her paternal connections, Caroline Bauer was not exempted from those questionable attentions to which pretty and popular actresses are exposed on the part of unscrupulous admirers. . . ."
1. Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck.
" . . . On her first public appearance at Carlsruhe a distinguished general, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck, became enamoured of the young debutante, and enlisted her brother in his service for the prosecution of his suit. Caroline, be it here said, had two brothers---Louis, who had grieved his mother by adopting a mercantile career instead of seeking service at the Court of Coburg; and Karl, a high-spirited youth, who had entered the army, and in order to maintain his position as an officer and a gentleman, incurred debts and drew largely upon the slender means of his mother and the earnings of his sister. It was he who now informed Caroline that Count Bismarck had actually joined him in his ride; had alluded in flattering terms to his dead father, and placed his purse at his disposal. 'And then he spoke of you, Lina---of your beauty and sweetness and accomplishments---growing quite enthusiastic over you. He declared that he loved you, and that if he had not his old wife on his hands he would make you his countess, and that if you would only wait until she was gone he would marry you, and make over his whole fortune and provide for all of us, and double my lieutenant's pay. Oh, Lina, what a prospect!' 'I cannot deny,' says the little actress naively, 'that all this greatly flattered my vanity, but my guardian angel saved me from becoming the mistress of a married man!'" (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 132)
2. Ludwig, Grand Duke of Baden.
"Shortly after, Louis, the reigning Grand Duke of Baden, a man between sixty and seventy years of age, sent a Court official to her with the most brilliant proposals; but here again her guardian angel stepped in, this time in the form of a theatrical agent, with the offer of an engagement at the Berlin Court Theatre at an increased salary of 150 pounds a year. . . ." (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
3. Prince August of Prussia.
" . . . She had no sooner appeared upon the boards in the northern capital than Prince Augustus of Prussia made love to her after the vigorous fashion of his uncle, Frederick the Great, declining to take any denial. So importunate did he at length become in urging his suit, that the fair Caroline could only escape his rough wooing by leaping out of a window into the street---a gymnastic feat which, she tells us, her theatrical training 'in the part of mischievous pages and other trowser characters' enabled her to perform without injury to life and limb. . . ." (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
4. A diamond-eyed youth.
" . . . Her next love adventure was of a more sentimental character---a beautiful youth with diamond eyes and pulmonary tendencies having taught her what it was 'to love and to be loved.' This was, as far as we are informed, the one romance in Caroline's life. It was short-lived, however, for the beautiful prima donna, Amalie Neumann, who brooked no rival near her throne, threw her spell over the diamond-eyed one, who then and there transferred his homage to her. . . ." The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
5. Valet of Count Samailov.
"When Circe released her victim he once more threw himself at Caroline's feet; but she had by this time found solace for her broken heart in a contemplated marriage with a Russian count who eyes are not described, but who possessed real diamonds and fabulous wealth---a liberal-minded nobleman, who had not only agreed to settle eight thousand guldens a year in pin-money upon his future wife, but would allow her to pursue her theatrical career even after she should have become the Countess Samailov. On the eve of their marriage, however, he was discovered to be not the Count himself, but the Count's discharged valet, who had appropriated his master's wardrobe and loose cash, and whose magnificently arranged wedding-tour was diverted into a solitary journey to the fortress of Spandau. . . ." (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
Karoline's other suitors.
"Although living under her mother's roof, and deriving a certain social consideration from her paternal connections, Caroline Bauer was not exempted from those questionable attentions to which pretty and popular actresses are exposed on the part of unscrupulous admirers. . . ."
1. Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck.
" . . . On her first public appearance at Carlsruhe a distinguished general, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck, became enamoured of the young debutante, and enlisted her brother in his service for the prosecution of his suit. Caroline, be it here said, had two brothers---Louis, who had grieved his mother by adopting a mercantile career instead of seeking service at the Court of Coburg; and Karl, a high-spirited youth, who had entered the army, and in order to maintain his position as an officer and a gentleman, incurred debts and drew largely upon the slender means of his mother and the earnings of his sister. It was he who now informed Caroline that Count Bismarck had actually joined him in his ride; had alluded in flattering terms to his dead father, and placed his purse at his disposal. 'And then he spoke of you, Lina---of your beauty and sweetness and accomplishments---growing quite enthusiastic over you. He declared that he loved you, and that if he had not his old wife on his hands he would make you his countess, and that if you would only wait until she was gone he would marry you, and make over his whole fortune and provide for all of us, and double my lieutenant's pay. Oh, Lina, what a prospect!' 'I cannot deny,' says the little actress naively, 'that all this greatly flattered my vanity, but my guardian angel saved me from becoming the mistress of a married man!'" (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 132)
2. Ludwig, Grand Duke of Baden.
"Shortly after, Louis, the reigning Grand Duke of Baden, a man between sixty and seventy years of age, sent a Court official to her with the most brilliant proposals; but here again her guardian angel stepped in, this time in the form of a theatrical agent, with the offer of an engagement at the Berlin Court Theatre at an increased salary of 150 pounds a year. . . ." (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
3. Prince August of Prussia.
" . . . She had no sooner appeared upon the boards in the northern capital than Prince Augustus of Prussia made love to her after the vigorous fashion of his uncle, Frederick the Great, declining to take any denial. So importunate did he at length become in urging his suit, that the fair Caroline could only escape his rough wooing by leaping out of a window into the street---a gymnastic feat which, she tells us, her theatrical training 'in the part of mischievous pages and other trowser characters' enabled her to perform without injury to life and limb. . . ." (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
4. A diamond-eyed youth.
" . . . Her next love adventure was of a more sentimental character---a beautiful youth with diamond eyes and pulmonary tendencies having taught her what it was 'to love and to be loved.' This was, as far as we are informed, the one romance in Caroline's life. It was short-lived, however, for the beautiful prima donna, Amalie Neumann, who brooked no rival near her throne, threw her spell over the diamond-eyed one, who then and there transferred his homage to her. . . ." The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
5. Valet of Count Samailov.
"When Circe released her victim he once more threw himself at Caroline's feet; but she had by this time found solace for her broken heart in a contemplated marriage with a Russian count who eyes are not described, but who possessed real diamonds and fabulous wealth---a liberal-minded nobleman, who had not only agreed to settle eight thousand guldens a year in pin-money upon his future wife, but would allow her to pursue her theatrical career even after she should have become the Countess Samailov. On the eve of their marriage, however, he was discovered to be not the Count himself, but the Count's discharged valet, who had appropriated his master's wardrobe and loose cash, and whose magnificently arranged wedding-tour was diverted into a solitary journey to the fortress of Spandau. . . ." (The Fortnightly Review, Volume 43: 133)
Freein von Eppinghoven.
Lover in 1842-1844.
Daughter of Major Charles-Joseph Claret & Henriette Neetezoone.
Wife of Ferdinand Meter (1808-1864), Belgian Master of the Royal Stables, mar 1845.
Natural offspring:
1. Georges-Frederic von Eppinghoven (1849-1904)
2. Arthur von Eppinghoven (1852-1940)
"Four years after Charlotte was born [1840], Leopold was introduced to Arcadie Claret. It was at a concert of the Grand Harmonie. Arcadie made a big impression on the King. He wanted to see her again. Arcadie was however a minor; she was sixteen at the time; she was born on May 30, 1826. Leopold arranged for her to marry Frederick Meyer, who was his friend from Coburg. On the wedding day on June 30, 1845, Frederick Meyer departed for Coburg and never returned. The love affair between Arcadie and Leopold flourished and is documented in great detail in the books by H. Claessens and M. Kerkvoorde. Four years after her wedding in 1849 Arcadie gave birth to a son called Georg Friederich Ferdinand Meyer. . . [Rumor] had it that this was not the first natural child of the King, but at least until then the other adulterous affairs of the King had been kept more discreet. Three years later another son was born. He was named Christian Friedrich Arthur Heinrich. Both Georg and Arthur were later recognized as sons of Leopold I. Arcadie was elevated on June 21, 1863 to 'Baroness von Eppinghoven' and her sons became Barons von Eppinghoven." (Flemish DNA & Ancestry: History of Three Families Over Five Centuries: 337)
His most enduring affair.
"The King continued to sate his appetites wherever, and whenever, he could, and there was never any shortage of Belgian mistresses willing to accommodate him. His most enduring affair was with the young Arcadie Claret de Viescourt, who liked to flaunt her position in public, even when it meant having her coach pelted with rotten vegetables on the streets of Brussels. The King maneuvered her into his palace by arranging for her to be married to one of his stewards, and she took the title Madame Meyer von Eppinghoven. The steward was then persuaded to make himself scarce. Arcadie gave Leopold two sons. Although he was infamously parsimonious (accord to one mistress, Karoline Bauer, the King went to bed with two little clamps between his back teeth to prevent wear on the enamel while he slept), he always made generous provision for his bastards: illegitimate daughters were taken care of by arranged marriages, and sons received diplomatic postings or army commissions." (Royal Babylon: 262)
First encounter & afterwards.
"In 1844, Leopold met the eighteen-year-old Arcadia Eugenia Claret-Meyer – he was fifty-three. He housed her in a mansion at No. 47 Rue Royale with a staff of servants who wore his livery. Their son, George Frederick Ferdinand Henry, was born in the convent of St. Joseph Girls, Cross Street Louvrex, Liège. Leopold then purchased Chateau Stuyvenberg for Arcadia, where she gave birth to their second son, Christian Frederick Arthur. Leopold asked his nephew, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to create his second family titles. These sons were made Baron von Eppinghoven and Arcadia was made Baronin von Eppinghoven with an income and property to go with it." (EHFA)
The woman the King openly treated as his wife.
"While Louise suffered, Leopold left her for ever longer periods -- either to go hunting in the Ardennes mountains or the Kempen moors, or to visit the German spa of Wiesbaden -- and he took a permanent mistress. Leopold met Arcadie Claret in the early 1840s. In 1845, he had the 19-year-old girl marry one of the officers of his personal staff, his Rittmeister Friedrich Meyer, a widower from Coburg. Meyer had been ordered to marry Arcadie so she would have a position, but it was the King who bedded the bride. Leopold installed young Madame Meyer, whom he called 'Meyerchen' (Little Meyer), in a big house in the Rue Royale in Brussels, not far from the royal palace. Arcadie was given her own servants, a carriage adorned with armorial insignia and liveried footmen. Every afternoon Leopold walked from the palace to Arcadie's place and stayed for dinner. His ministers knew where to find him. Occasionally Leopold's friends, the ministers Van Praet and Chazal, stayed for dinner, too, together with the King and the woman whom he openly came to treat as his wife. He provided Meyerchen with a house in Liege, the little chateau of Stelenbosch near the royal residence of Laken, and a house at Langenfeld in Germany. She also accompanied him on foreign travels." (A Throne in Brussels: Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianisation of Europe: 66)
First encounter.
Arcadie met Leopold I in 1842, or at the latest 1844, when she was 16 or 18 years old, and became his mistress almost immediately.
Keeping appearances up.
" . . . Leopold I, the first Belgian king, had a mistress, Arcadie Cadet, for whom he arranged a marriage with an officer from his staff, Friedrich Meyer. . . ." (Harry's polo shirt, 2005, July)
Natural offspring.
" . . . Arcadie Meyer gave birth to two illegitimate royal children, Georges and Arthur. The king gave Arcadie and her children a nobility title, "Barron of Eppinghoven". Her descendants are living in Canada. . . ." (Harry's polo shirt, 2005, July)
Affair's effects on the King's wife and other people.
"Louise was deeply hurt by the public nature of the affair. 'She is extremely nervous in her jealous affection', the Marquess de Rumigny observed. Though in her daily letters to her mother she wrote down everything that was happening around her, even the most intimate details of her married life, this she never told her. It was too painful. The people in Brussels sympathised with Louise. In November 1849, Arcadie became the mother of a baby boy by Leopold. When she took her son out for a stroll in the summer of 1850, she was jeered at and eggs and excrement were thrown at her. When Leopold heard about his, he went mad with rage. He shouted insults at his ministers, complained about the ingratitude of the Belgians and threatened to resign, knowing full well that his ministers would never allow this to happen as it might jeopardise the existence of Belgium and, hence, their own livelihood. Then, one night in August, all the windows of Arcadie's house were smashed. The people were angry because they knew that at the royal palace Louise was lying seriously ill. The authorities feared an uprising if the Queen were to die. A senator said he that he knew some citizens were preparing to burn Arcadie's house down and storm the royal palace." (A Throne in Brussels: 66)
" . . . Arcadie Meyer gave birth to two illegitimate royal children, Georges and Arthur. The king gave Arcadie and her children a nobility title, "Barron of Eppinghoven". Her descendants are living in Canada. . . ." (Harry's polo shirt, 2005, July)
Affair's effects on the King's wife and other people.
"Louise was deeply hurt by the public nature of the affair. 'She is extremely nervous in her jealous affection', the Marquess de Rumigny observed. Though in her daily letters to her mother she wrote down everything that was happening around her, even the most intimate details of her married life, this she never told her. It was too painful. The people in Brussels sympathised with Louise. In November 1849, Arcadie became the mother of a baby boy by Leopold. When she took her son out for a stroll in the summer of 1850, she was jeered at and eggs and excrement were thrown at her. When Leopold heard about his, he went mad with rage. He shouted insults at his ministers, complained about the ingratitude of the Belgians and threatened to resign, knowing full well that his ministers would never allow this to happen as it might jeopardise the existence of Belgium and, hence, their own livelihood. Then, one night in August, all the windows of Arcadie's house were smashed. The people were angry because they knew that at the royal palace Louise was lying seriously ill. The authorities feared an uprising if the Queen were to die. A senator said he that he knew some citizens were preparing to burn Arcadie's house down and storm the royal palace." (A Throne in Brussels: 66)
Affair's benefits to Arcadie & children.
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| Stuyvenberg Castle @Wikipedia |
4) Luise von Sachsen-Gotha.
[Alleged & rumoured)
"Ernst's first legitimate son, also called Ernst, was born in June 1818. A second son, Albert, was born on 26 August 1819. Theories abound over who Albert's real father might have been. According to Harald Sandner, the modern historia of the House of Saxe-Coburg, it probably was Leopold, who apparently stood in for his brother in the marital bed as well. Leopold was living in the Ehrenburg Palace from September 1818 to May 1819. He took a keen interest in the education of his nephews, especially of the youngest. The child grs up very fond of Uncle. 'Albert adores his uncle Leopold, never leaves his side, ogles him, is constantly hugging him, and doesn't feel comfortable unless he can be near him,' Louise wrote when the boy was two years old." (A Throne in Brussels: 20)
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| Leopold II of Belgium |
King of Belgium
1865-1909
Husband of:
1. Marie-Henriette von Osterreich (1836-1902), mar 1853.
2. Caroline Lacroix, mar 1909
Obsession for manifold encounters with the fair sex.
"Leopold's son, meanwhile, had already started seeking pleasure elsewhere early during his unhappy marriage with the unfortunate Marie-Henriette. Although introduced to carnal pleasures only relatively late, Leopold II soon developed his father's passion for sex, which vied with his obsession with the Congo and with money. 'My nature require manifold encounters with the fair sex,' he confided to his diary. 'I do not understand how clerics can live.' Among his may mistresses was Marguerite d'Esteve, known as 'Margot, the Queen of the Congo', who kept a salon on Brussels's prestigious Avenue Louis. There were others in Nice and other fashionable resorts of the time. The King had a particular passion for chambermaids, shop girls and chocolatieres, the young women who sold chocolate in salons de the, all of who were sent away weighed down with presents." (Great Survivors: 153)
Frequent visitor to Paris nightclubs.
"In later life Leopold was also a frequent visitor to Paris nightclubs, where expensive prostitutes with pseudo-aristocratic names catered to the needs of affluent clients. He was especially fond of Emilienne d'Alencon, who, along with Liane de Pougy and Caroline 'La Belle' Otero, were known as the 'Trois Graces' or, more appropriately the 'Grande Horizontales'. More shocking were the allegations of paedophilia made during a court case in London in 1885. A former servant at a 'disorderly house' owned by a Mrs. Mary Jeffries testified that the King paid 800 pounds a year for a supply of young virgins, aged ten to fifteen, to be sent him in Brussels. . . ." (Great Survivors: 153)
"In later life Leopold was also a frequent visitor to Paris nightclubs, where expensive prostitutes with pseudo-aristocratic names catered to the needs of affluent clients. He was especially fond of Emilienne d'Alencon, who, along with Liane de Pougy and Caroline 'La Belle' Otero, were known as the 'Trois Graces' or, more appropriately the 'Grande Horizontales'. More shocking were the allegations of paedophilia made during a court case in London in 1885. A former servant at a 'disorderly house' owned by a Mrs. Mary Jeffries testified that the King paid 800 pounds a year for a supply of young virgins, aged ten to fifteen, to be sent him in Brussels. . . ." (Great Survivors: 153)
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| Blanche Delacroix |
His lovers were:
Lover in 1899-1909.
Parisian prostitute.
Daughter of: A French railway porter.
He was 65, she was 17 years old.
"In the summer of 1900, Leopold began what was to prove a highly controversial relationship with Blanche Delacroix, a young French woman. He was already sixty-five and Blanche was just seventeen: he was taken by her youth and beauty; she was dazzled by his wealth and position. She had been living with Antoine-Emmanuel Durrieux, a sea captain eighteen years her senior who she had met during her voyage from Argentina, where she had been living for the previous few years, but was quick to see the attraction of a royal liaison. Leopold, feeling unloved by his own family and needing someone to nurse him in old age, made her his permanent mistress. . . ." (Great Survivors: 154)
"A mistress of the Belgian king Leopold II, Blanche Delacroix, described her stay at Gastein spa. She was a little more than 20 to his rather unprepossessing mid-60s, but 'Whether bald, one-eyed or hunchbacked, kings are handsome'. During their first meeting in Paris, the king told the young woman to prepare for a journey. The next day a messenger brought her two suitcases, a toilet-bag and a briefcase of red morocco leather, all embossed with an 'R'. The briefcase contained money and an envelope with instructions: she would travel to Austria under the name of Countess Rienzi. She got off the Orient Express at the small Alpine station of Gastein, surrounded by tall, shady trees and flowerbeds with red geraniums. Two gentlemen in black met her and took her to a hotel. The drawing room of her suite filled with roses had three doors: one led to the bedroom, the other into the hallway. She had no time to wonder about the third door when it opened and the king came in. It was their first meeting in privacy. He did not ask her whether she liked his arrangements; it was taken for granted, and the memoirist acknowledged that 'comfort is half of happiness'.
The King's secret liaison.
"Leopold II considered their liaison a secret, although his mistress says that everyone knew about it. Every morning in the park Leopold met the king of Rumania and stopped his carriage for a chat. Blanche remained in the carriage facing the king's aide. On some days the king of Rumania ignored her; on others he acknowledged her presence by raising his hat. In this case Leopold mentioned that he happened to meet this lady in the park and invited her to accompany him, but there were no introductions. At the hotel restaurant they dined at separate tables, and he never looked her way during the meals. Only after his queen died did Leopold begin to invite a few acquaintances to his mistress's Riviera house." (The Summer Capitals of Europe, 1814-1919: 78)
"Leopold II considered their liaison a secret, although his mistress says that everyone knew about it. Every morning in the park Leopold met the king of Rumania and stopped his carriage for a chat. Blanche remained in the carriage facing the king's aide. On some days the king of Rumania ignored her; on others he acknowledged her presence by raising his hat. In this case Leopold mentioned that he happened to meet this lady in the park and invited her to accompany him, but there were no introductions. At the hotel restaurant they dined at separate tables, and he never looked her way during the meals. Only after his queen died did Leopold begin to invite a few acquaintances to his mistress's Riviera house." (The Summer Capitals of Europe, 1814-1919: 78)
First encounter in 1900.
"Leopold had first met Caroline Lacroix, a prostitute, in Paris in 1900 when she was about 16. The Belgian King spirited her away to Bad Gastein in Austria. When she was 18 and he was 67, she became pregnant and Leopold and the French government split the cost of constructing a new road near her villa so that her carriage would have a smooth ride. He installed her in the Villa Les Cedres, where their son Lucien Delacroix was born. Leopold gave Caroline the title of Baroness de Vaughan and the boy that of Duke of Tervuren. . . Leopold married the former prostitute on his deathbed on 13 December 1909. He died four days later." (Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera: 102)
"Leopold had first met Caroline Lacroix, a prostitute, in Paris in 1900 when she was about 16. The Belgian King spirited her away to Bad Gastein in Austria. When she was 18 and he was 67, she became pregnant and Leopold and the French government split the cost of constructing a new road near her villa so that her carriage would have a smooth ride. He installed her in the Villa Les Cedres, where their son Lucien Delacroix was born. Leopold gave Caroline the title of Baroness de Vaughan and the boy that of Duke of Tervuren. . . Leopold married the former prostitute on his deathbed on 13 December 1909. He died four days later." (Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera: 102)
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| Villa Les Cedres |
"At the turn of the century, the Elysee-Palace Hotel, near the Arc de Triomphe, was among the most elegant in Paris. One day a guest happened to notice a young woman, also staying at the hotel, whose name, like other details of her past, remains in question: it was Caroline, or perhaps Blanche, Delacroix, or perhaps Lacroix. Although still a teen-ager, Caroline was the mistress of Antoine-Emmanuel Durrieux, a former officer in the French Army. He attempted to support them both by betting on horse races. When his betting luck ran low, it appears, Durrieux also acted as Caroline's pimp. Their lodgings at the Elysee-Palace were a useful base for these operations, but they frequently left bills unpaid. An unexpected solution to these troubles appeared when a woman approached Caroline at the hotel and said, 'Madame, I am sent to you by a gentleman who has noticed you. He is a very high personage but his exalted position obliges me to withhold his name.'" (King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa: 221)
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| Villa Leopolda @Wikipedia |
Affair's benefits to Blanche.
" . . . He shared his vast fortune with her, showering her with expensive jewels -- including a diamond necklace worth 75,000 -- and properties: he renovated for her Villa Vandenborght, near his palace in Laeken -- even building a special walkway over the road to link the grounds of their two homes -- and bought her the Villa Caroline, in Ostend, which was connected to his Chalet Royal by an underground tunnel, and the Chateau de Balincourt, in Arronville in the Val-d'Oise, which had silver bathtubs and a bed adorned with gold under a vast canopy of handmade Belgian lace." (Great Survivors: 154)
"When Gianni bought a villa in 1951, he chose one that demonstrated what would become his signature taste, and made a statement about the provincial young auto heir's social ambitions. He bought the French Riviera's most lavish estate, Villa Leopolda, a 28-room residence build by King Leopold II in 1902, a trophy property that made the Agnellis' Villa Perosa look like a country cottage. On a hill commanding a sweeping view of the sparkling blue Mediterranean and Cap Ferrat below, the 20-acre estate was dotted with cypress and olive groves nestled around on oval pool. Not only was the villa sumptuous, but it was also star-crossed. King Leopold II of Belgium, founder of the Belgian Congo, built it with profits extracted from forced labor in his colony, for a mistress and lover in his aging years. The villa would later be owned by the Safras and be the site of a mysterious murder. Safra's widow reigned at Villa Leopold for years until she sold it to a mysterious Russian buyer who paid a reported 500 million euros, a world record." (Mondo Agnelli: Fiat, Chrysler, and the Power of a Dynasty)
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| Blanche Lacroix Baronne de Vaughn |
" . . . Leopold II also had two illegitimate children with his mistress Blanche Delacroix, whom he married on his death bed. Lucien Delacroix became Duke of Tervuren, Philippe Delacroix Count of Revenstein. . . ." (Harry's polo shirt, 2005, July)
" . . . Delacroix had two children, both sons: Lucien, born in February 1906, and Philippe, born in October the following year. Whether the King, now seventy-two, was actually Philippe's father is not clear -- even though he was encouraged to see that the newborn baby had a deformed hand, something of a hereditary trait of the Coburgs. Blanche was rewarded for the birth of Lucien by being ennobled as the baroness de Vaughn. The two boys were to be treated rather more generously than Delphine Boel would be by King Albert II almost a century later: Lucien became the duke of Tervuren and younger brother the count of Ravenstein (Great Survivors: 155)
In 1906 Caroline's first son was born. Two years previously Leopold had created her Baroness Vaughan, and he was so pleased with the boy that he made him Count de Tervuren. Caroline's luck was in when he told her that he was exactly like that son of his who had died in 1869 at the age of ten. Leopold had never forgotten the death of the Duke of Brabant, and because of the likeness he lavished his affections upon the boy. In 1908 another son was born, and he was given the title of Count de Revenstein." (Famous morganatic marriages online)
Natural Offspring:
1. Lucien, Duc de Tervuren (1906-1984)
2. Philippe, Comte de Revenstein (1907-1914)
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| Caroline Otero |
2) Caroline Otero.
"Caroline Otero (1868-1964) enjoyed the patronage of Leopold II of Belgium, and was often to be seen literally 'covered with jewels' that had been bestowed on her by Albert of Monaco, the Shah of Persia, Muzaffar-ed-Din, the Khedive of Egypt and Baron Ollestreder of Berlin. She once appeared at the Paris Opera triply decorated with a necklace of the Empress Eugenie's . . . ." (Cartier: 331)
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| Cleo de Merode |
3) Cleo de Merode. (1875-1966)
French ballerina
Daughter of: Karl, Freiherr von Merode, Austrian landscape painter & a former Viennese actress.
"She was a notorious dancer who became the mistress of King Leopold II of Belgium. . . " (Weissenburger: 146)
"Leopold II of Belgium, whose coat of arms still decorate the VS-O-E 'wagons-lits,' was an original supporter of the Nagelmackers. In 1876, King Leopold traveled in his royal carriage with his mistress, the dancer Cleo de Merode, with her private boudoir car in tow. The press called him 'Cleopold' because of his indiscretion." (Orange Coast Magazine:79)
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| Leopold II of Belgium with Cleo de Merode Caricature, 1903 @ Alamy Stock Photo |
" . . . It must have seemed that the steamy air of the conservatories could foster growth to other spheres when, at the end of the century, the king's liaison with the dancer Cleo de Merode filled the gossip columns of Europe. It was in 1806 in Paris that the stiff-looking elderly king had made the acquaintance of this strikingly lovely woman, with her simple coiffured and middle parting. She too was Belgian, but she was forty years younger than the king. There must have been something touching about the relationship: in spite of the gossip there were no jeers, and the king, renamed 'Cleopold', suddenly seemed more human and likeable. . . One of the figure-heads of nineteenth century imperialism had met the incarnation of art's new yearnings. . . Affairs between well-known wealthy men and exceptionally beautiful women were frequent enough, but Cleo de Merode managed to retain a kind of sanctity, if not innocence. Half a century later she sought to deny that she had been a courtesan, and insisted in court her role had been platonic and quasi-diplomatic. This had little effect on public opinion, it simply intensified the symbolic significance of what had been." (Art Nouveau: 42-43)
"At the end of hat year [1895], however, another event occurred which was to plague her for the rest of her life. The Belgian King, Leopold II, was in Paris for negotiations over Belgian/French colonial interests, and, to disguise the purpose of his mission, let it be known that he was in Paris to see Cleo perform. Leopold was known to have had mistresses, and the corps-de-ballet of the Opera Ballet at he time was considered to be a den of courtesans. Consequently, the press put tow and two together and began to spread salacious and ill-founded stories that the twenty-two-year-old ballet performer had become the sixty-one year old Regent's latest mistress. Stories were told of fabulous gifts he had given her, and a special carriage added to his train to allow her to accompany him. The King was nicknamed 'Cleopold' because of his supposed infatuation with her." (Stage Beauty)
"There was an obscure little Parisienne, a ballet-dancer, slender, dark-eyed, with the face of a Madonna---called Cleo de Merode. Upon a night Leopold saw her from his box---and made her the talk of two continents. She was only a little white rat of the theatre, demure, with dark hair drawn low over her ears, and a pale beauty of which she was fully aware; but he made her the queen of the glittering tinsel world of Paris. He paved the way for more magnificent gifts by a trifle in the shape of a pearl necklace worth $100,000. Such jewels, such furs, such flowers, such equipages, were lavished upon the little danseuse, with her Perugino eyes and her Botticelli hair, that even Paris, the mondaine, was forced to sit up and gasp." (Militarism, Imperialism and Racial Accommodation: 243)
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| Emiliane d'Alencon |
French dancer, actress, and courtesan
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