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| Caroline Otero @strangeflowers |
(1868-1965)
Spanish artist & dancer.
Otero's personal & family background.
"Otero attributed her sensational endowments to heredity: a lovely Gypsy mother and Greek aristocratic father, who died in a duel defending his wife's honor. Honor in fact was her mother's last virtue. The village puta, she had seven children by an array of men in a forlorn mountain town in northern Spain. Carolina Otero Iglesias, her second, grew up unsupervised, unschooled, and neglected in desolate poverty. At eleven she was abducted by the shoemaker, held captive, and raped until her pelvis broke. Thus began her obsession with her 'liberte.'. . . ." (Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love)
La Belle's physical appearance.
"Her appearance was just as superlative as her exploits. Besides her sultry Carmencita face, she had a body to make men faint---runway legs and voom-voom measurements of thirty-eight, twenty-one, thirty-six. Her breasts, which wags said 'preceded her by a quarter of an hour' when she entered a room, inspired the Cannes Carlton to name its twin domes les boites a lait [milk bottles] d'Otero. Even Colette waxed poetic; they looked like 'elongated lemons,' she said, 'firm, and up-turned at the tips.'" (Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love)
The most famous belle epoque courtesan.
". . . Spanish Gypsy [refers to] Caroline Otero, popularly known as La Belle Otero (1868-1965). Otero, perhaps the most famous belle epoque courtesan, has been described by her biographer, Arthur H. Lewis, as 'a woman so lacking in morals, so grossly materialistic in outlook, and, though she was often billed as an artist, so totally lacking, save, one, in any genuine talent.' Strangely enough, Otero's first success was won in America, where during the 1890-91 season she was exploited at New York's Eden Musee as the 'mysterious Spanish beauty, international Queen of the Dance.' . . . he high point of her career was perhaps her thirtieth birthday, at which she was accompanied by King Leopold II of Belgium, Prince Nicholas I of Montenegro, Prince Albert of Monaco, the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich of Russia, and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales---an entourage out of a von Stroheim film, at least. . . . " (Von: The Life and Films of Erich Von Stroheim:68-69)
La Otero's liaisons with royalty.
La Otero's liaisons with royalty.
"The courtesan-performers boasted of their liaisons with royalty. Among Otero's many suitors, she counted some of the most prominent members of Europe's royal families who, no less than more ordinary men, were bewitched by the aura of glamorous sin that surrounded her. These included at least five present or future monarchs: Kaiser Wilhelm II; Edward, Prince of Wales; Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, Alfonso XIII of Spain; and Prince Albert of Monaco. Some of these encountered Otero when she was on tour in their capitals; others benefited from a Parisian rendezvous. Needless to say, news of these royal liaisons travelled far and wide and added greatly to her fame and to the legend of her beauty. Such tales fuelled the public's imagination and wove around the leading figures of the belle epoque a legend of transgression, beauty and fearlessness." (Glamour; A History)
" . . . In many respects the Riviera set the highest standards, and the best courtesans of the day fluttered to its lights. Most famous of all was La Belle Otero. Caroline Otero was a Spanish gypsy who married an Italian baron, honeymooned in Monte Carlo and soon progressed to a career as what the French called une grande horizontale. Her clients included the Prince of Wales, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Leopold II of Belgium, Tsar Nicholas II, and a German millionaire of whom Otero observed, 'Such a rich man can never be ugly.' . . ." (Riviera: The Rise and Rise of the Cote d'Azur)
" . . . In many respects the Riviera set the highest standards, and the best courtesans of the day fluttered to its lights. Most famous of all was La Belle Otero. Caroline Otero was a Spanish gypsy who married an Italian baron, honeymooned in Monte Carlo and soon progressed to a career as what the French called une grande horizontale. Her clients included the Prince of Wales, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Leopold II of Belgium, Tsar Nicholas II, and a German millionaire of whom Otero observed, 'Such a rich man can never be ugly.' . . ." (Riviera: The Rise and Rise of the Cote d'Azur)
Five European king's craving for La Otero in a single evening.
". . . One story holds that during a single evening at the Cafe de Paris, five of Europe's kings descended on the table, looking for love: Nicholas II of Russia, Britain's Edward VII, Wilhelm II of Prussia, Belgium's Leopold II, and Alfonso XIII of Spain. The evidence is paltry as to which royal(s) gained her favor that night, but I'm guessing, no matter what, La Belle Otero was compensated generously for her efforts on that occasion." (Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession: 53)
Once she charmed four kings.
Once she charmed four kings.
"Other women have gone down in history because they won the favour of a king. La Belle Otero, as she was called, captivated four crowned heads of Europe---Leopold II of Belgium, Czar Nicholas II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Edward VII of England." (Trove)
Six lovers killed themselves because of her.
"At the top of the tree were the grandes horizontales headed by Carolina Otero known simply as 'La Belle'. Born in Galicia, she went to France as a dancer and starred with her opulent bosom and dark eyes as an Andalusian gypsy at the Folies Bergere music hall. Her lovers included the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales, as well as the kings of Serbia and Spain and Russian grand dukes; six men were said to have killed themselves after she ended their affairs. Her fortune was put at the equivalent of $25 million, but she gambled heavily and died in a one-room flat in Nice in 1950." (France: A Modern History: 185)
No jewels, no Otero.
No jewels, no Otero.
"Think of Caroline Otero, yes, la belle Otero, as the Prince of Wales called her, and so did Grand Duke Peter of Russia and another admirer, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who also called her 'my little savage.' Maybe the Kaiser had better taste than history credits him with. La belle Otero eventually ended up with a Baron Ollstreder, who gave her so many jewels, including the famous necklace of Marie-Antoinette, that he nearly went broke. and that was the end of the liaison, which shouldn't surprise you. No jewels, no Otero. . . ." (Remembrance of Things Parins: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet: 182)
A legion of lovers of the highest quality.
A legion of lovers of the highest quality.
"Her lovers were legion, and of the highest quality. La Belle Otero is said to have slept with more royalty than any other courtesan in Europe. All of them rewarded her handsomely. King Leopold of the Belgians' occasional involvement with Otero resulted in gifts of several desirable residences across Europe, in particular a luxury villa at Ostend. As for Prince Nicholas of Montenegro and Prince Albert of Monaco, Otero seems to have run them concurrently for several years. Albert, the more generous (but the less virile), gave Otero over 225, 000 pounds in jewellery. An exception, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, offered only a small hunting lodge just outside Paris. She was bedecked with h=jewels by Muzaffar-ed-Din . . . and the multi-millionaire Joseph Kennedy was far from ungenerous. In the theatre, Emperor Yoshihito of Japan honoured Otero with the gift of a Pacific island in recognition of a performance she gave in front of a vast audience in Tokyo. In the bedroom, after a strenuous three days of love-making, the Khedive of Cairo gave her a ten-carat diamond ring comfortably nestled in a setting of twelve magnificent pearls and valued at over half a million francs." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
The mistress of six crowned heads of state.
The mistress of six crowned heads of state.
"The press was not kind to Miss Otero. She was accused of being the lover on no less than six crowned-heads of state -- including King Edward of England and Czar Nicholas of Russia. Similar accusations were leveled at the kings of Spain and Serbia, the Grand Duke Peter, and the Duke of Westminster. It is a fact that at least two men fought a duel over her, and another committed suicide because of her rejection of his advances." (Lock Keeper)
"During the early 1900’s the courtesans of France were heavily sought by men around the world. They came at an extremely high price, decorated themselves in expensive jewelry and had a grace in their gait that drove men mad. La Belle Otero was one of these women, her hair raven black, figure like a wine glass and complexion intoxicating. Born in Spain to a poverty-stricken home, the poor girl was raped into sterility at the tender age of 10 (Author’s note: what the hell!). At 13 years old she ran away from the orphanage and married, then was abandoned by an Italian man who gambled her away in a dice game. Taking to the road to dance for money with her partner “Paco”, this began a career for Otero as a mistress and exotic dancer. Taking on the name of La Belle Otero, to support her fictional history as an Andalusian Gypsy, Otero became a must-have for the richest men in the world. It was said that her dark eyes were so penetrating one could not take one’s eyes off of them. Men literally showered her with money, invited her to dinners where each plate was worth the sum of a regular man’s life of salary and royal heirs were willing to give everything up for her." (Hotties Of History: Carolina La Belle Otero)
Her lovers were:
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| Albert I of Monaco |
1) Albert I de Monaco (1848-1922)
The playboy prince with deep pockets and a sexual problem: "The new conquest was Albert, Prince of Monaco, a millionaire (sic) playboy with deep pocket and sexual problems only Caroline could cure. He set off a regal stampede. . . . " (Glamour: A History)
$300,000 for giving a prince an erection.
". . . In the 1890s, Prince Albert of Monaco earned low marks because he had trouble getting an erection. After a night of conversation, he finally did, and Otero exaggerated the truth to tell him he was 'formidable'---whereupon he 'strutted around the room.' The grateful Albert set her up in a choice apartment and gave her more than $300,000 worth of gems.'He was not a very virile man and I don't think he got his money's worth,' Otero concluded. 'But as long as he didn't care, neither did I, and he seemed to enjoy taking me where we could be seen together publicly.'" (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
2) Alexander I of Serbia (1876-1903)
Lover in 1905
"On a visit to Monte Carlo in 1905, Otero 'deflowered' 19-year-old King Alfonso XIII of Spain. 'He was rather aloof at first,' she remembered, 'but I taught him how to relax.' In 1913, at the age of 27, he set the 44-year-old Otero up in Madrid in the last apartment she would ever occupy courtesy of a royal client." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
4) Aristide Briand (1862-1932)
"Otero;s 49th birthday had found her with a new lover, Aristide Briand, who would become one of France's greatest statesmen and win the 1926 Nobel Peace Price. Otero must have sensed his coming greatness, because his appearance did not foretell such a future: 'He was . . . hideously ugly. He was fat. He dressed like a slob---often there's be remains of an omelet on his vest, his nails were black, but there was a fascination to him I never found in any other man.' He could only afford 'an occasional cheap jewel and flowers,' Otero recalled. 'Once . . . he made love to me eight times before morning. And he was 50 years old at the time.' Their affair lasted 10 years." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
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10) Boni de Castellane (1867-1932)
French aristocrat
". . . For routine sex, she slept for ten years with Aristide Briand, a statesman with a libido fully equal to Otero's, who made love eight times a night. . . . " (Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and their Lost Art of Love:n.p.)
5) Auguste Herrero.
6) Baron de Lezacari.
7) Baron Lepic
"Otero made love with Baron Lepic in a hot-air balloon floating 200 ft. over the Aube River near Privins, France. On June 15, 1902, the New York World reported that 'the gondola remained high above the earth for more than one hour.' Sixty years later, Otero purred, 'It was an experience every woman should enjoy.'" (Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and their Lost Art of Love)
". . . In 1902, she satisfied Baron Lepic floating two-hundred matres over Paris in a hot-air balloon. . . . " (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
8) Baron Ollstreder
Austrian banker
Affairs' benefits:
" . . . La belle Otero eventually ended up with a Baron Ollstreder, who gave her so many jewels, including the famous necklace of Marie Antoinette, that he nearly went broke. And that was the end of the liaison, which shouldn't surprise you..." (Reichl: 182).
" . . . Otero boasted of the necklaces she received from the wealthy Viennese banker Baron Ollstreder that had once belonged to the Empress Elisabeth ('Sissi') of Austria. . . (Glamour: A History)
". . . (W)hile out walking, Caroline paused to look into a jeweller's window. A middle-aged, distinguished-looking man approached her. He begged her. He begged for the honour of presenting her with whatever in the window took her fancy. She pointed to a 10,000 peseta jewel case, containing a necklace, tiara, ring, bracelet and earrings. With a little persuasion, she allowed herself to be taken into the shop of its purchase. The following day her admirer, Lisbon's foremost banker, bought up Caroline Otero's contract with the theatre and installed her in a mansion. Charge accounts were opened for her with jewellers, dressmakers and perfumers. Gifts were heaped upon her until her rooms were overflowing with them. At the end of two months Caroline had realised upon most of the presents and had 100,000 pesetas in cash. She packed her bags and bought a ticket for Barcelona--and Pacco." (Trove)
Affair's end & aftermath.
". . . She left Ollstreder because all he wanted was to be with a famous demi-mondaine whose luxury would bring him honour. She perceived that this embourgeoisement of galanterie eliminated its spontaneously gay character. . . . " (Glamour: A History)
9) Beppino de Montel.
" . . . Until the 'thirties Beppino de Montel, who was not a cotton but a silk man an equally prestigious thing to be, owned racing stables (and what could be more English than thoroughbred horses?), was president of the Clubino, the young men's club, and had enjoyed the expensive favors of La Belle Otero, used to send his shirts to London to be washed and ironed, like the dandies of the Second Empire. . . ." (From Caesar to the Mafia: Persons, Places, and Problems in Italian Life: 191)
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French aristocrat
Comte de Castellane-Novejean, Marquis de Castellane.
Son of: Antoine de Castellane, Marquis de Castellane-Nevejean & Anne-Marie Le Clerc de Juigne.
Husband of:
1. Anna Gould mar 1895, div 1906.
11) Captain Duval
". . . While the shah made her very wealthy, she chose to give herself to the penniless Captain Duval, because he was pleasing to me." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
French satirist, caricaturist & political cartoonist.
13) Count Savin de Pont-Maxence:
". . . Comte Savin de Pont-Maxence an admirer who hardly knew her, agreed to cover all the invalid's expenses and provide her with a pretty, well-furnished apartment to aid her recuperation (another charmed moment)." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
14) Duc de Dino
15) Duc d'Orleans
16) Prince Edouard de Belime
Lover in 1897.
"The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII of England, travelled frequently met her in private rooms at Voison's, Durand's or the Cafe Anglais." (Trove)
18) Ernest Jurgens
21) Guglielmo
22) Hugh Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (1879-1953)
23) Jacques de Crussol, Duc d'Uzes
24) Joseph P. Kennedy
25) Khedive of Cairo:
Lover in 1895
"Sixty-year-old King Leopold II of Belgium 'was not very generous at the start but I taught him how to give. He was an apt student.' They met in 1894 and were part-time lovers for three or four years. Leopold, said Otero, 'gave my my own small villa by the sea' at Ostend, in west Flanders, then an exclusive summer resort." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
27) Lord Lawson
28) Manuelo Domingo, Portuguese banker.
". . . Caroline fled back to Portugal. At the first stop, Oporto, she fell in with rich and handsome Manuelo Domingo, the son of a great wine-growing family. A few months later, as a result of gifts from the generous Manuelo, she had 340,000 pesetas on deposit in the Bank of Spain. His family had stepped in and packed Manuelo off to France to forget her. Caroline was given a handsome present and ordered to leave Oporto." (Trove)
"Wealth and good looks, in that order, were always irresistible to Otero; Manuel had more than his share of both. That intimate supper led Manuel establishing his mistress in the Hotel de France, where he sent flowers, daily and heaped expensive gifts on her. She was now sixteen and an experienced cocotte. She learned about lust from Paco; Senor Porrazzo taught her the power of money; now, Manuel was teaching her about love an expensive interlude for the boy, from whom she gained 340,000 pesetas and a sizable collection of jewels and expensive clothes." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
29) Marquis de Tirenzo.
"Another admirer, the Marquis de Tirenzo, appeared and assumed responsibility for her upkeep. However, he did not last long. Caroline soon fell head over heels in love with an impoverished Italian Count, earning a living baritone in a visiting opera company. Nothing else wold satisfy her except marriage. The Count capitulated gracefully, threw up his job and entered matrimony. Caroline was dragged to Monte Carlo, where for the second time she allowed a man to squander all she possessed in the gaming rooms. A final break with the Count came with the discovery that he had seduced a maid in their hotel for the purpose of borrowing her savings 10,000 francs to try out a new roulette system. Caroline Otero packed up and departed fr Paris. . . . "(Trove)
30) Michael Pirievski, Russian prince
"When Thompson eventually called it a day, Caroline Otero soon replaced him with a Russian Prince named Michael Pirievski. Temperamental and wildly jealous, Pirievski made her life a hell. In Monte Carlo, after he discovered her making an appointment with a visiting nobleman, he tried to shoot her when she returned to her suite. His aim was poor. Caroline suffered only a minor wound in the arm. As soon as she recovered she shot Pirievski in the same place with the same revolver." (Trove)"Wealth and good looks, in that order, were always irresistible to Otero; Manuel had more than his share of both. That intimate supper led Manuel establishing his mistress in the Hotel de France, where he sent flowers, daily and heaped expensive gifts on her. She was now sixteen and an experienced cocotte. She learned about lust from Paco; Senor Porrazzo taught her the power of money; now, Manuel was teaching her about love an expensive interlude for the boy, from whom she gained 340,000 pesetas and a sizable collection of jewels and expensive clothes." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
29) Marquis de Tirenzo.
"Another admirer, the Marquis de Tirenzo, appeared and assumed responsibility for her upkeep. However, he did not last long. Caroline soon fell head over heels in love with an impoverished Italian Count, earning a living baritone in a visiting opera company. Nothing else wold satisfy her except marriage. The Count capitulated gracefully, threw up his job and entered matrimony. Caroline was dragged to Monte Carlo, where for the second time she allowed a man to squander all she possessed in the gaming rooms. A final break with the Count came with the discovery that he had seduced a maid in their hotel for the purpose of borrowing her savings 10,000 francs to try out a new roulette system. Caroline Otero packed up and departed fr Paris. . . . "(Trove)
30) Michael Pirievski, Russian prince
"Her five-year affair with the Muzaffar-ed-Din, shah of Persia, netted Otero a stream of jewels. 'He was a dirty, smelly old man, and very strange in his desires,' she recalled. 'He visited me every afternoon at two o'clock and left at five. Ten minutes later one of his servants would be at the door to hand my maid a gold, inlaid cassette, lined with a velvet. It contained a single jewel but a very magnificent stone---diamond, ruby, pearl, jade, or emerald, some worth as much as 25,000 francs. I would remove the jewel and return the box." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
"On one thing Otero was adamant: she chose her lovers, often influenced by the enormous fees they were prepared to spend. Thus she accepted the Shah of Persia, allegedly rather smelly and with a leaning to sadism but he presented her with many priceless jewels over their intermittent five-year liaison. These invariably arrived in a gold casket on a velvet cushion. Otero would open the lid, extract the jewel and never say thank you. The shah preferred silence, in an effort, perhaps, to preserve the mystique of anonymity. . . . " (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
"In 1894 Prince Nicholas of Montenegro (who would become his country's first and last king) moved into the apartment Albert had given Otero. The tall, slender prince was in his early 50s, and their relationship lasted for several years. After presenting Otero with 'a simply gorgeous diamond bracelet and at least five . . . beautiful watches,' he persuaded her to visit his palace in 1897. Otero later complained, 'I saw practically nothing the whole trip . . . all the prince wanted to do was to make love to me so I obliged." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People:508)
"One of the richest men in the world, Nicholas II, czar of Russia, had a bad complexion and rarely bathed. 'He really stank,' said Otero, and was still shaken from an assassination attempt that had occurred six years earlier. 'There were always a half-dozen huge, black-bearded armed guards at our bedroom door, some more at the window, and if there was a rear exit, he'd have half a regiment posted there. It almost felt like I was undressing in an army barracks or a bullfighting arena. . . But Otero 'grew quite fond of him' even though 'he had the strangest views about sex.' (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
34) Pacco
"At 14 . . . she was dancing at a well-known cafe in the city. At the cafe the 14-year-old minx met her first love, a dashing gambler and ne'er-do-well whom she calls Pacco in her memoirs. Exerting all the charm and coquetry she had inherited from her mother, Caroline badgered him into eloping with her to Lisbon. . . ." (Trove)
"At eleven she was abducted by the shoemaker, held captive, and raped until her pelvis broke. Thus began her obsession with her 'liberte.' A year later she ran away from home and lived by her wits and body until she met a dancer named Paco. He taught the fourteen-year-old how to dance, and for the next seven years he pimped and hustled jobs for her as they crisscrossed Spain on the cabaret circuit." (Glamour: A History)
35) Prince de Sagan.
37) Reiderman
38) Reza Shah of Iran
39) Senor Pompei
40) Senor Porazzo.
"Her benefactor introduced himself as Senor Porazzo, a very wealthy, middle-aged banker who had seen her performance and used this casual encounter to make Otero's acquaintance. When he set up his beautiful young mistress in a delightful apartment and opened several charge accounts for her, he had no idea she was underage. After some weeks, however, she discovered by chance that Paco was in Barcelona. With no thought of Senor Porazzo, Otero absconded, taking with her the small fortune she had accumulated from her protector." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
41) Stevez, a Spaniard
". . . A friend called Stevez at last convinced Otero just how worthless her lover was. He urged her to break with this parasite as soon as an opportunity occurred. . . . " (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
42) Vicomte de Chenedolle:
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Wilhelm II of Germany |
Lover in 1890
"Otero did not limit herself to royalty. William K. Vanderbilt, of the famous (and rich) American family, offered Otero a yacht and showered her with $250,000 worth of jewels, including a pearl necklace Napoleon III had given the Empress Eugenie." (The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People: 508)
". . . In 1890 she made love with William Kissam Vanderbilt on his luxury yacht, the Alva. . . . " (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
Benefits: "One of the first words Otero learnt in English was 'Tiffany's.' Merchant princes like William Vanderbilt whisked her off to glamorous locales and wooed her with matched pearls, heirloom diamonds, and emerald bracelets. . . . " (Glamour: A History)
Physical Appearance & Personality: "Her appearance was just as superlative as her exploits. Besides her sultry Carmencita face, she had a body to make men faint---runway legs and voom-voom measurements of thirty-eight, twenty-one, thirty-six. Her breasts, which wags said 'preceded her by a quarter of an hour' when she entered a room, inspired the Cannes Carlton to name its twin domes les boites a lait [milk bottles] d'Otero. Even Colette waxed poetic, they looked like 'elongated lemons,' she said, 'firm, and up-turned at the tips.'." (Glamour: A History]
Personal & Family Background: ". . . Her mother Carmencita, originally from Cadiz, was a beautiful gypsy and her father a Greek military officer stationed in Spain. The couple's marriage was built on desire, struggled from desperation, and broke down due to betrayal. Throughout most of her adulthood Carmencita was motivated by greed and a penchant desire for a life of material wealth. The Greek officer's infatuation with the foreign beauty drove him to a relentless pursuit of her love, and while they were eventually married, Carmencita barely felt any passion for her husband and remained with him solely for the luxurious life that he offered her. Her restlessness in the marriage drove her to adultery, and she maintained no level of family responsibility or obligation despite bearing four children. The tension in the marriage culminated upon the officer's discovery of his wife's infidelity. . . Requesting a dual (sic, duel?) against his wife's lover, the officer loses Carmencita and his life to his rival." (Celebrity)
Spouses & Children: She married 1) ; 2) in 1906, Rene Webb, an Englishman. " . . . By fifteen, she juggled three Andalusian grandees and an Italian husband who was, in Caroline's words, 'as handsome as Bizet's Toreador. However, she soon abandoned this handsome husband and began performing in Marseilles caf-concs before making her way to Monte Carlo. . . . " (Edwardian Promenade)
"By far the most flamboyant cocotte of the era, La Belle Otero was the bastard daughter of a Barcelona gypsy. She began dancing in local cafes and soon reached Paris, where her sensuous performances made her an immediate sensation. . . ." (Paris in the Fifties)
Benefits: " . . . (A) French count constructed a sumptuous mansion for her off the Champs-Elysees. Her chief lover, a boorish German baron, would summon her to bed with a costly jewel. . . ." (Paris in the Fifties)
" . . . Otero lived in a sumptuous apartment near the Bois de Boulogne that had been given to her by a duke in payment for a champagne dinner. . . . " (Something in the Way She Moves: Dancing Women from Salome to Madonna: 109)
" . . . Among the many possessions she amassed during her career was an island in the Pacific, bought for her by the Emperor of Japan. . . . " (Something in the Way She Moves: 110)
Aftermath: " . . . A reckless gambler, she lost bundles at Monte Carlo until, down to her last centime, she had to pawn or auction off her possessions. She retired to a shabby apartment on the Cote d'Azur, the scene of her past extravagances, and was still residing there a decade after World War II. . . ." (Paris in the Fifties)
"In her short life Lola Montez had at least 25 and three marriages - two of them bigamous." (Daily Mail)
"Courage---and shuffle the cards"
(Lola's motto)
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Lola Montez, 1847 |
(1821-1861)
Lover in 1846-1848.
Grafin von Landsfeld 1847
Irish dancer, actress & royal courtesan
Daughter of Edward Gilbert (d.1823) and Elizabeth Oliver.
Personal & family background.
"Lola Montez was born Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert on Feb. 17, 1821 to Edward Gilbert, a British army officer, and Eliza Oliver, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Irishman — and not a Spanish nobleman, as Montez would later claim. Speaking of fabrications, Montez would later list Limerick as her place of birth, although she was really born in County Sligo. In 1823, Edward Gilbert was stationed in India and the family made the four-month voyage halfway around the world. Unfortunately, he died of cholera only a few months after their arrival. His widow quickly remarried another officer and sent young Eliza back for schooling in England, where “the peculiarity of her dress” and the “eccentricity in her manners served to make her an object of curiosity and remark.”" (All That is Interesting)
"Yet far from being a Spanish noblewoman, she was the low-born daughter of an English soldier and a 14-year-old Irish peasant girl. So how did she come to both entrance and horrify society? Born Elizabeth Gilbert in Ireland in 1821, ‘Lola’ — then known as Elizabeth or Betty — was two years old when she sailed with her parents to India, where her father’s regiment had been posted. Months after arriving, Ensign Gilbert died of cholera. His pretty widow swiftly remarried Captain Patrick Craigie, who was a kind and loving stepfather. But Lola’s mother had little interest in her daughter and abandoned her to the care of Indian servants, who let her run wild." (Daily Mail)
"Billing herself as Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, born in Ireland in 1818 or 1821, Montez, or Montes, courted scandal from the time she eloped as a teen. Her father was British army officer Edward Gilbert, disowned by his family after marrying a dancer who claimed descent from Madrid’s Oliverres de Montalvo family. Montez’s mother was Elizabeth, illegitimate daughter of Charles Oliver, of Castle Oliver, and a peasant on his County Limerick estate. In this account, Montez was born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert on February 17, 1821 in Grange, County Sligo. Her father was posted to India in 1823 and died of cholera. In 1824 her mother married Lt Patrick Craigie in India. Eliza was sent to live with Craigie’s relatives in Scotland in 1826, then to boarding school at Bath in England in 1832. Her mother arrived in 1837 with plans to marry her to a wealthy, elderly judge in India." (Daily Telegraph)
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Lola Montes |
Wife of:
1. Lt. Thomas James (1807-1871), mar 1837, sep 1839.
Irish military officer
" . . . In Britain, she eloped with Thomas James: the scandalous marriage was brief, childless, and unhappy. When still married to James, Montez shocked society with her affair with another soldier, George Lennox. . . ." (Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work, Vol 1: 319)
Irish military officer
" . . . In Britain, she eloped with Thomas James: the scandalous marriage was brief, childless, and unhappy. When still married to James, Montez shocked society with her affair with another soldier, George Lennox. . . ." (Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work, Vol 1: 319)
" . . . Finished with school at 19, she eloped to Ireland, marrying a lieutenant named Thomas James. However, he soon ran off with a captain's wife, leaving Eliza on her own, but not without friends." (Lola Montez)
"This seems to have held true throughout her years in school. As Eliza herself later said, when she was about 14, her mother attempted to marry her off to a “gouty old rascal of sixty years” back in India, but the wily teenager had her own ideas and instead eloped with a Lieutenant Thomas James in 1837 at the age of 16. Eliza and her new husband soon made their way to India, but the relationship quickly fizzled. As she later noted, “runaway matches, like runaway horses, are almost sure to end in a smash-up” and she was soon on her way back to England alone." (All That is Interesting)
"When Lola was 15 her mother returned to take her back to India. On the passage, Mrs Craigie met 30-year-old Thomas James, a handsome, Irish lieutenant returning home on sick leave. She spent much of the voyage in his cabin, supposedly nursing him, though others suspected they had become intimate. And when Lola’s mother arrived to see her daughter at her boarding school in Bath, she took Lt James with her. It was a grave mistake. Lt James and Lola promptly eloped, married, then sailed for India to rejoin his regiment, where Lola’s beauty made her the toast of British India (much to her mother’s chagrin; Mrs Craigie was used to being the belle of every regimental ball). Perhaps inevitably, the marriage did not last long. According to Lola’s memoirs, it was James who strayed first, but when Lola decided to flee back to Britain, her ship had barely left the dock before she had taken a lover, another army officer, who set her up as his mistress in London. When news of the affair reached her husband, he sued for divorce." (Daily Mail)
"Montez instead ran off with Lieutenant Thomas James, 30, marrying him in July 1837 near Dublin. Montez accompanied him to Afghanistan in 1839, where James left for another woman. Montez returned to England in 1842, where James won a judicial separation on grounds of her adultery during her voyage home." (Daily Telegraph)
" . . . When threatened with marriage to an elderly British officer in India, she eloped (aged 16) with her mother's lover, a Wexford born Anglo-Irishman. The marriage didn't work out. He was violent and promiscuous, and she left him." (Hidden History -- Her Name was Lola)
2. George Trafford Heald (d.1856, )mar 1851, div 1851.
British cavalry officer.
"Meanwhile, Lola moved to London and married George Trafford Heald, a young cavalry officer with a recent inheritance. However, under the terms of her divorce from Captain James, she was prohibited from marrying again until James was deceased. When Heald's scandalised aunt learnt of the marriage, she initiated proceedings against Lola for bigamy. The newlyweds abandoned England, making their way through France, Italy, Spain, but the marriage came asunder in Barcelona." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Before making it to America, Lola Montez spent time in London, where she picked up a new husband — one who had conveniently just come into an inheritance. This new husband, George Trafford Heald, enjoyed only a short relationship with Montez before disappearing under circumstances that remain unclear (some say he drowned)." (All That is Interesting)
"Lola returned to London where she seduced and married a wealthy young army officer, George Heald, but was charged with bigamy and fled to Europe again. After a series of violent quarrels Heald left, claiming that Lola had stabbed him." (Daily Mail)
"In London in 1851, Montez married officer George Heald, whose aunt filed bigamy charges after learning Montez’s divorce from James forbid remarriage. She arrived in New York in 1852 dressed as a man, with spurred boots and a riding whip. . . ." (Daily Telegraph)
"Not long after her arrival in London, Lola met and quickly married George Trafford Heald, a young army cornet (cavalry officer) with a recent inheritance. Unfortunately, whilst she had a legal separation from her first husband, divorce at this time could only be provided by an Act of Parliament, making this marriage bigamous. Lola and Heald fled the country after Heald’s scandalised aunt filed a bigamy suit and an arrest warrant was issued for Lola’s arrest. They lived in France and Spain but after only a year or two Lola found herself once again with a marriage in tatters and, in 1851, Lola decided once again to journey somewhere she could have a fresh start." (Hidden historical heroines (#07: Lola Montez))
"She returned to London and within months, she had met and married Army officer George Trafford Heald, who came from a rich and distinguished family. A family member found out about her questionable past; her choices were to go to jail or leave England. George and Lola fled. Heald drowned the following year and Lola returned to the stage." (Maritime Heritage)
"Once again Lola found herself cut adrift around Europe, and this time she fetched up in London where she met and married a young British officer named George Heald. He was 20 to her 27, and the age difference as well as Lola’s notoriety scandalised his (wealthy, naturally) family. One of them managed to identify her as Eliza James, and since the terms of her divorce with Henry James forbade remarriage she was forced to flee the country to avoid arrest. George accompanied her, but the marriage gradually deteriorated, with Lola’s mercurial temperament wearing him as raw as it did most people. In 1850 they separated. Heald moved to Lisbon, where he would drown three years later, while Lola, with her thirtieth birthday fast approaching, headed where people always headed when they were looking for a new start. The USA." (Headstuff)
3. Patrick Purdy Hall, mar 1853, div 1855.
San Francisco editor
"In 1851 Lola, now 30, voyaged to America to start all over again. She dance her way up the east coast before moving to San Francisco, where she found her third husband, the newspaperman Patrick Hull. They moved to Grass Valley, a swelteringly hot ravine close to the Empire Mine and North Star Mine, two of the richest mines in Nevada Country, California. The Californians would later name the county's highest point, Mount Lola, in her honour. When the Hull marriage also collapsed, Lola took to the seas again in 1855, this time sailing to Australia, where she cause uproar at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne by raising her skirts too high during a performance of the 'spider dance.' . . . ." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
" . . . The irrepressible Lola Montez was a regular. She was notorious for 'her beauty and her consummate impudence... Her gait and carriage were those of a Duchess, but the moment she opened her lips, the illusion vanished...though not devoid of wit, her wit was what the pot-house, which would not have been tolerated in the smoking room of a club in the small hours.' Montez was in her twenties at the time and was carving out a niche for herself with raunchy performances at the Paris Opera of the cachucha, a Spanish dance rendered popular in Paris by the Austrian ballerina Fanny Elssler, who was involved in a turbulent dispute with the Paris Opera when she defaulted on her contracts and defected to America instead." (The Real Traviata: 87)
" . . . In 1853 she married San Francisco newspaper publisher Patrick Hull, and opened a miner’s saloon and brothel at Grass Valley. Divorced again, in June 1855 she sailed for Australia’s gold fields." (Daily Telegraph)
"From 1851 to 1853 Lola worked across the east coast of America as a dancer and an actress, including in a play entitled Lola Montez in Bavaria. In the summer of 1853 she settled in California with husband number three, a reporter named Patrick Purdy Hull. The marriage lasted less than 3 months and she bought a mine in northern California where she settled down for a while until 1855; her restored house is now a registered Californian Historical Landmark." (Hidden historical heroines (#07: Lola Montez))
"Later that year, she married her third husband (again bigamous), Patrick Hull, owner of the San Francisco Whig newspaper in a Catholic ceremony at Mission Dolores. The marriage with Hull lasted two months. Hull sued for divorce, naming a German doctor as co-respondent: a few days later the doctor was found shot dead in near-by hills." (Maritime Heritage)
"It was time, of course, to get married again, and this time she chose Patrick Purdy Hull, an Irishman who had come in on the boat with her. Eliza said she liked him because he could tell a story better than any other man she had known. . . ." (Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West: 379)
Lola's personal & family background.
"From 1851 to 1853 Lola worked across the east coast of America as a dancer and an actress, including in a play entitled Lola Montez in Bavaria. In the summer of 1853 she settled in California with husband number three, a reporter named Patrick Purdy Hull. The marriage lasted less than 3 months and she bought a mine in northern California where she settled down for a while until 1855; her restored house is now a registered Californian Historical Landmark." (Hidden historical heroines (#07: Lola Montez))
"Later that year, she married her third husband (again bigamous), Patrick Hull, owner of the San Francisco Whig newspaper in a Catholic ceremony at Mission Dolores. The marriage with Hull lasted two months. Hull sued for divorce, naming a German doctor as co-respondent: a few days later the doctor was found shot dead in near-by hills." (Maritime Heritage)
"It was time, of course, to get married again, and this time she chose Patrick Purdy Hull, an Irishman who had come in on the boat with her. Eliza said she liked him because he could tell a story better than any other man she had known. . . ." (Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West: 379)
Lola's personal & family background.
"Lola Montez (1818-1861) must be accorded a picturesque place, even if a lowly one, among the dominant women of history. She is described in many accounts as a Spanish dancer, but she received only four months' tuition from a Spanish professor, and although she was presented at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, as a 'premiere danseuse from the Teatro Real, Madrid,' she probably never appeared there. She was born in Limerick, her descent, according to her own story, being Irish on the father's side, and Moorish-Spanish on the mother's, and her real name was Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert. She described herself as 'erratic,' and in truth she was, but if much of her career was that of a 'loose woman,' there is also in it a period when she showed some political acumen, practically ruling Bavaria, on so-called liberal lines, as mistress of the sexagenarian king." (The Affairs of Women: A Modern Miscellany: 83)
"Lola’s father was an English soldier named Edward Gilbert, on tour in Munster to police the troubled province. Her mother was Eliza Oliver, the illegitimate (but acknowledged) daughter of Charles Oliver, who had been high sheriff of Cork and an MP in his day. The two were married in 1820, and a year later (after Edward’s duties had taken him north to county Sligo) they had a daughter, named Eliza after her mother.[1] The following year, Edward arranged rotation out of his unit, changing places with a new cadet who was heading out to India. It was a big step, but it promised both increased pay and increased excitement. So the young family set out, but tragedy was waiting en route. At some point during the long journey, Edward contracted cholera, and by the time they arrived in Dinapore where he had been posted, the disease was in its final stages. By the date he had been due to report for duty, he was dead." (Headstuff)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . Almost two decades later, her art teacher, a Mr. Grant, in response to a query about the famed 'Lola Montez', would recall the young Eliza in some detail in a letter to the Sutherland Herald. His description of her was uncannily reflective of the reports of Eliza in adulthood. He would wite: '(She was) symmetrically formed, with a flowing graceful carriage, the charm of which was only lessened by an air of confident self-complacency -- I might almost say a haughty ease -- in full accordance with the habitual expression of her else beautiful countenance, namely, that of indomitable self-will -- a quality which I believe had manifested itself from early infancy. Her features were regular, but capable of great and rapid changes of expression. Her complexion was orientally-dark, but transparently clear; her eyes were of deep blue, and, as I distinctly remember, of excessive beauty, although bright with less indication of the gentle and tender affections of her sex than of more stormy and passionate excitements.'" (The Most Famous Irish People You've Never Heard Of)
"She was not really Spanish; she was born plain Maria Gilbert in Ireland in 1818. But her flashing black eyes and ebony hair made her look every inch the 'Andalusian beauty'. There was something provoking and voluptuous [about her] which drew you. Her skin was white, her wavy hair like the tendrils of the woodbine, her eye tameless and wild, her mouth like a budding pomegranate,' rave one admirer, adding more circumspectly, 'Unluckily, as a dancer she had no talent.'" (Affair to Remember: 88)
" . . . One of her teachers described her as elegant, graceful, and beautiful, with an 'air of haughty ease.' She was also extravagant, impetuous, and had a violent temper. But at this point, her misbehavior was limited to putting flowers in the wig of a man in front of her in church, and supposedly running through the streets naked." (Saints, Sisters and Sluts)
"Lola’s father was an English soldier named Edward Gilbert, on tour in Munster to police the troubled province. Her mother was Eliza Oliver, the illegitimate (but acknowledged) daughter of Charles Oliver, who had been high sheriff of Cork and an MP in his day. The two were married in 1820, and a year later (after Edward’s duties had taken him north to county Sligo) they had a daughter, named Eliza after her mother.[1] The following year, Edward arranged rotation out of his unit, changing places with a new cadet who was heading out to India. It was a big step, but it promised both increased pay and increased excitement. So the young family set out, but tragedy was waiting en route. At some point during the long journey, Edward contracted cholera, and by the time they arrived in Dinapore where he had been posted, the disease was in its final stages. By the date he had been due to report for duty, he was dead." (Headstuff)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . Almost two decades later, her art teacher, a Mr. Grant, in response to a query about the famed 'Lola Montez', would recall the young Eliza in some detail in a letter to the Sutherland Herald. His description of her was uncannily reflective of the reports of Eliza in adulthood. He would wite: '(She was) symmetrically formed, with a flowing graceful carriage, the charm of which was only lessened by an air of confident self-complacency -- I might almost say a haughty ease -- in full accordance with the habitual expression of her else beautiful countenance, namely, that of indomitable self-will -- a quality which I believe had manifested itself from early infancy. Her features were regular, but capable of great and rapid changes of expression. Her complexion was orientally-dark, but transparently clear; her eyes were of deep blue, and, as I distinctly remember, of excessive beauty, although bright with less indication of the gentle and tender affections of her sex than of more stormy and passionate excitements.'" (The Most Famous Irish People You've Never Heard Of)
"She was not really Spanish; she was born plain Maria Gilbert in Ireland in 1818. But her flashing black eyes and ebony hair made her look every inch the 'Andalusian beauty'. There was something provoking and voluptuous [about her] which drew you. Her skin was white, her wavy hair like the tendrils of the woodbine, her eye tameless and wild, her mouth like a budding pomegranate,' rave one admirer, adding more circumspectly, 'Unluckily, as a dancer she had no talent.'" (Affair to Remember: 88)
" . . . One of her teachers described her as elegant, graceful, and beautiful, with an 'air of haughty ease.' She was also extravagant, impetuous, and had a violent temper. But at this point, her misbehavior was limited to putting flowers in the wig of a man in front of her in church, and supposedly running through the streets naked." (Saints, Sisters and Sluts)
" . . . She was pretty---some have said she had black eyes and hair but Rourke says 'her hair, which curled almost childishly back from her face, was bronze with dark shadows, her eyes were blue.' She was not a raving beauty that some writers have made her out to be, and like her kind she was more than normally vain, selfish, ruthless, and unmoral. . . ." (Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West: 378)
"At twenty-seven, Lola was at the peak of her perfection. To add to her arsenal of seduction, she had carefully studied how to dress her wonderful figure to its full advantage. She understood the sensuous appeal of dark velvets against her skin, the seductive power of rustling silk skirts and the allure of pure white Byronite collars lighting her face and innocently showing off her slender next. Lola's mass of think black curls and those famous gentian eyes were as nothing compared to her greatest asset: she knew herself. She was finally aware of the impact of her stunning beauty, and had learned how to use her power. Few women of her time had her experience of foreign courts and societies, had travelled so extensively or had been closely involved with so many men." (Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours: 268)
Lola had more lovers than a centipede's legs.
"Lola also left in her wake 'more lovers . . . than the legs of a centipede.' A wealthy 'admirer' secured her comfortable lodgings in Brussels, her first port of call in Europe after her London fiasco. While touring Germany, she made the acquaintance of composert, Franz Liszt, who became so besotted with her that he dedicated a sonata to their love. During a trip to Russia, she was courted by a Prince Schulkoski, one of the great magnates of St. Petersburg. When this Russian dalliance failed to secure her a royal marriage, she made her way to Paris where she took up with Francis Leigh, a former English Hussar. After running him off with a pistol in a jealous rage, she became the mistress of a wealthy young journalist and newspaper owner named Charles Dujarier. His unfortunate death in a duel, led her back to central Europe where she finally hooked a king." (Villainy in Western Culture: 167)
Lola's conquests.
"A hundred and fifty years on, Lola Montez is a mystery, and not the kind she wanted to be – not so much a femme mystérieuse as a mystifying blank. It is impossible to see what it was that drove so many prominent men to acts of such lustful folly. Her conquests included Franz Liszt, Robert Peel (son of the prime minister), the French newspaper editor Alexandre Dujarier, Marius Petipa (the creator of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker), the Earl of Malmesbury, the Count of Schleissen, Lord Brougham (once described as ‘the ugliest man of the present century next to Liston and Lord Carlyle’), Jung Bahadur (the Nepalese ambassador to London), Savile Morton (a journalist friend of Thackeray), Augustus Noel Follin (a businessman from Cincinnati), Edward Payson Willis (a literary black sheep) and, most scandalously of all, King Ludwig of Bavaria, whose long entanglement with Lola brought disgrace, in the opinion of many, on the city of Munich. ‘What a hold this miserable witch has obtained over this old, adulterous idiot sovereign,’ said Sir Jasper Nicolls, a military man. ‘Wretched country to be ruled by such a shameless rogue – but I must remember that Munich is the most abandoned capital in Europe.'" (Boudoir Politics)
"Still doesn't ring a bell, hmm? Well, Lola's whole story is a little too large for this space. She'd already lived about three lifetimes' worth of adventure -- and burned through romances with personalities from King Ludwig the First to Sam Brannan -- before conquering Gold Rush-era San Francisco with her scandalous 'Spider Dance'." (SFist)
Lola's lovers after the Bavarian affair.
"When over the next few weeks, she didn't hear from Ludwig, an undaunted Lola once again resorted to disguises in an attempt to see the king. She was recognized and kept under close guard until Ludwig arrived; he confirmed that her stipend, which he had doubled only weeks before, would continue. Unable to bear the loss of his great love and counsellor, and hoping to resume their former relationship as a private citizen, Ludwig abdicated in March 1848, on a fixed income of 500,000 florins annually. This was threatened immediately he attempted to join Lola. Ludwig may have been lovesick but he wasn't prepared to lose his lifestyle. Meantime, Lola relieved her boredom in a series of affairs which included Auguste Papon (a bogus marquis), Robert Peel, the eldest son of Sir Robert Peel who was in Switzerland on diplomatic duties, and a number of dubious young men. She also continued her affair with Elia Piessner after the Alemannen had disbanded. Eventually, the misguided student was dropped; he returned to Bavaria, completely disillusioned." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
Lola's lovers were:
Heinrich LXXII von Reuss zu Ebersdorf (1797-1853)Lover in 1843.
"Clearly, if Rosanna, now called Lola, wished to fulfill her ambition of becoming a dancer, she would have to go someplace where nobody knew her past. So the Irish girl departed for the Continent in July 1843. Her first port of call was Germany and the modest feudal palace at Ebersdorf on the Saale, near Gera, whose bachelor prince, Heinrich LXXII, had been one of her fans in London. She arrived in such a cyclone of cigarette smoke and sexuality that the prince could not cope, especially when she began draping flower chains around his neck in full view of his staff. When she tired of the prince's company she embarrassed him so publicly during a picnic that he asked her to leave his realm. She rather cuttingly replied,'That's not such a long trip,' before clambering into a carriage and rattling eastwards towards Dresden." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Better luck befell the wanderer at her next attempt to establish intimate contact with a member of the hoch geboren, Henry LXXII. His principality, Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf (afterwards amalgamated with Thuringia), had the longest name, but the smallest area, of any in the kingdom, for it was only about the size of a pocket-handkerchief. But to Lola this was of no great consequence. What, however, was of consequence was that he was a millionaire (in thalers) and possessed an inflammable heart." (The Magnificent Montez)
"Where Lola was concerned, she very soon put a match to the inflammable, if arrogant, heart of Prince Henry, and, as a result, was "commanded" to accompany him to his miniature court at Ebersdorf. She did not, however, stop there very long, for, by her imperious attitude and contempt of etiquette, she disturbed the petty officials and bourgeois citizens surrounding it to such a degree that they made formal complaints to his High-and-Mightiness. At first he would not hear a word on the subject. Such was his favourite's position that criticism of her actions was perilously near lèse-majesté and incurred reprisals. As soon, however, as the amorous princeling discovered that his bank balance was being depleted considerably beyond the amount for which he had budgeted, he suffered a sudden spasm of virtue and issued marching-orders to the "Fair Impure," as his shocked and strait-laced Ebersdorfians dubbed the intruder among them. There was also some suggestion, advanced by a gardener, that she had a habit of taking a short cut across the princely flower-beds when she was in a hurry. This was the last straw. "Leave my kingdom at once," exclaimed the furious Henry. "You are nothing but a feminine devil!' Not in the least discomfited by this change of opinion, Lola riposted by presenting a lengthy and detailed account for "services rendered'; and, when it had been met (and not[ 94] before), shook the dust of Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf from her pretty feet. 'You can keep your Thuringia," was her parting-shot. 'I wouldn't have it as a gift."' (The Magnificent Montez)
" . . . At Baden it was rumoured that the Prince of Orange (probably an old friend of her Simla days) was among her admirers. There also she met that puissant prince, Henry LXXII. of Reuss, who straightway fell in love with her. He invited her to pay a visit to his exiguous dominions, and she went, probably feeling that she was playing the part of sparrow-hawk. At the Court of Reuss she suffered agonies of boredom. The etiquette was as strict as in the palace of the Most Catholic King, and the deference exacted by Henry LXXII. as profound as though he had been Czar of all the Russias. True, in his territory, only half as large again as the county of Middlesex, he wielded a power as absolute as that autocrat’s. Of this pettiness the beautiful stranger soon showed her impatience. Her infirmity of temper betrayed itself. She infringed His Highness’s prerogative by chastising his subjects—still, this could be overlooked by an indulgent prince. But when Henry one morning beheld Lola walking straight across his flower-beds, he felt that it was time to vindicate the outraged majesty of the throne. With his own august hands he wrote and signed an order, expelling Mademoiselle Montez from the principality. To this decree effect was only given when His Highness had satisfied to the last pfennig a tremendously long bill for expenses, presented to him by the audacious offender." (Lola Montez: An Adventuress of the 'Forties)
"At that time, the life of a stage performer embodied the hypocrisy of Victorian society. Ballet dancers, for example, were paid less than a living wage, as the expectation was that they would use their exposure to gain a lover from among the upper class who would sustain them. Here it was, then, that Lola would find herself bartering her sexual favours for power and influence. Her first appearance, in London, was initially a success, and her performance finished to thunderous applause and rave reviews in the papers. Unfortunately for Lola, some gentlemen in the crowd recognised her as the notorious adulteress Eliza James, while others recognized her “Spanish” dancing as a fraudulent imitation. Though she vigorously defended herself in letters to editors, she was forced to decamp to Paris. The controversy had the effect of amplifying her fame, however, and she snared at least one highly born admirer – Prince Heinrich of Leipzig. He took her as a mistress, and when she proved to be a touch too lively for his taste, he got rid of her by arranging a series of appearances in Dresden, which soon led to an engagement in Berlin. There she met with a mixed reception – her sensuality won over the crowd, but her lack of technique and variety offended the critics. Here again, her knack for catching the eyes of the rich and famous served her well, and she wound up dancing at a reception that Frederick William IV of Prussia was holding for the Czar of Russia. A quick rise, for a woman with a dancing career of, at the time, less than three month’s duration." (Headstuff)
Jung Bahadur Rana (1816-1877)
Lover in 1849.
Prime Minister of Nepal.
"Here we take off on another trajectory to introduce Lola Montez. She was the lover of King Ludwig I of Bavaria whose relationship had attributed to the king's fall from grace and exile. Lola Montez was the self-styled Spanish dancer who had bewitched the Continent by her scintillating "spider" dance. Little did people know that she was actually an Irish lass born Eliza Gilbert. Wherever she went people fell for her beauty and charm. She was at the Jardin Mabille that afternoon when Jung Bahadur arrived as she was performing at the Bal Mabille, an institute of dance founded in 1831 AD. She coquettishly approached Jung Bahadur while he was practicing his shooting at a range. The chivalrous Jung saw the young beauty and offered her his gun to shoot. Lola took the gun and accidentally pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting the thigh of Colonel Dhir Shumsher. The wound was not a serious one and Jung laughed out loud in a guffaw, the accident was considered a minor episode in the larger design of things to follow. Jung Bahadur was smitten by the twenty nine year old Lola. An affair followed to the chagrin of Jung's retinue including his brothers Jagat and Dhir who thought it best to hush it. Henceforth, wherever Jung visited Lola was not far behind. In a short while she was already a part of Jung's Nepalese contingent. It was rumored that Lola spoke broken Hindi, perhaps her parents had served in India, which made Jung's conversation with her less tiring than with Laura Bell. Jung had a lighter step henceforth." (Jung Bahadur Jana and the Dancing Damsels - the Sojourn in France)
First encounter.
" . . . Upon arriving in Munich in 1846, Montez went directly to the royal palace and demanded an audience with the 60-year-old ruler. A hopeless romantic, who was also no stranger to the ladies, Ludwig agreed to receive her in his private apartments. Accounts of their first meeting tell us that Lola not only danced for the aging monarch, but revealed her breasts to him when he asked her if theu were real." (Villainy in Western Culture: 168)
"In Munich, Montez came to the attention of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who had a love of all things Spanish (and female). Reportedly, when she first met the Bavarian royal in 1846, he “pointed inquiringly toward [her] well-formed bosom and said, ‘Nature or art?' Montez responded by cutting open the front of her dress “to reveal Nature’s endowment.” Although the story of their first encounter may very well be a fabrication, there is no doubt that Ludwig was soon smitten with Montez." (All That is Interesting)
" . . . While dancing in Munich, Lola attracted the attention of King Louis the First of Bavaria, who was in his 60s at the time, and she subsequently became his mistress. . . ." (Women of the Western Frontier in Fact, Fiction, and Film: 75)
Lola's benefits from the royal affair.
"Presenting herself to the Bavarian court as a Spanish noblewoman, Lola became acquainted with King Ludwig I. He was captivated by her and made her his official mistress. Ludwig lavished gifts on Lola including a house with all the trappings and a substantial income. On his birthday, February 17, 1847, he went so far as to make her Countess Marie von Landsfeld, and bestow Bavarian citizenship on her." (Ozmore & Abernethy)
"From this moment on, Ludwig admitted to being utterly bewitched, and'in the grip of a passion like never before.' Five days after their initial meeting, and following her performance at the state theater, he introduced her to the officials of his court as 'my best friend,' and ordered them to 'see to it that you accord her every possible respect.' Over the next six month, obeying that command entailed commissioning a portrait of her, which was hung in Ludwig's private 'Gallery of Beauties'; making her a citizen of Bavaria; elevating her to the country's nobility as the Countess of Landsfeld; providing her with a generous yearly annuity; and building her a palace in Munich's fashionable Barerstrasse district. At 27, Marie Gilbert James had arrived." (Villainy in Western Culture: 168)
Lola's favours to her royal paramour.
"In return for these many favors, Lola became Ludwig's devoted Maitresse du Roi (Mistress of the King). Like a latter-day Pompadour, she coddled and flattered tha aging king. She also indulged all of his sexual whims. 'At his request she gave him flannel swatches secreted in her vulva, let him suck her unwashed toes, and talked dirty. She wanted him to 'besar [fuck] her with great gusto and pleasure'; she said her 'cuno belonged to him.'" (Villainy in Western Culture: 168)
Why Her?: " . . . Ludwig fell in love with Lola's beauty, her mind and her esprit fort; and Lola delighted in the company of this amiable, intelligent monarch who allowed her to flex her political muscle and to taste the heady wine of power. . . The king was enamored with Lola's mind as he was with her beauty. Many a sane man has bought a woman he admires flowers each day---Ludwig's daily bouquets for Lola were poems. . . . " (Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours: 273)
Why Him?: "There are many accounts of King Ludwig's fascination with the dance, but few make an honest attempt to explain Lola's feelings for the king. The assumption that her only interests were venal does both dancer and king an injustice. Ludwig was an easy man to like, and in some ways his temperament was very similar to Lola's. As well as being very learned, the king was a tremendous enthusiast who carried along with him anyone willing to listen and learn. . . He was gracious, kind, and excellent company; nor should the particular glamour and appeal of absolute monarch be underestimated. . . . " (Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours: 273)
Benefits: " . . . Ludwig made her the Countess of Landsfeld, and granted her a large annuity. . . . " (Cerebral Boinkfest)
Nikolai I of Russia.
Lover in 1843.
"Over the next decade, in various European cities, the sexy Montez had affairs - with Dumas and Liszt before moving even higher up the A-list to bed Czar Nicholas I of Russia. In 1853, she had an open liaison with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and was expelled from the country, by his wife. Montez then moved to California, entertaining gold miners with her daring new Spider Dance, a mid-19th century version of the ancient Dance of the Seven Veils." (The Age)
Aristocrat lovers.
"Now, with supreme gall, she made a mighty effort to curry favour at the university by extending several invitations to the students. The majority shunned her. The few who accepted, about twenty, were charmed by her. They defied their own kind and formed their own union when they were ostracized for associating with 'the king's woman'. Known as the Alemannen, and dressed in specially designed uniforms, they became her devoted bodyguard. Inevitably, word soon spread that these young men, nicknamed 'Lola's Harem', were much more personally involved with the adventuress than appearances suggested (they were, after all, living in a house at the bottom of her private garden). Lola vehemently denied the accusations, although she took at least three of them to her bed -- even encouraging one of them, Elia Piessner, to believe that she would marry him." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)Royal lovers.
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| Prince Albert of Prussia @Wikipedia |
Albrecht von Preussen. (1809-1872)
Lover in 1843.
Brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
"And then she took Berlin, the capital of Prussia, where she once again either enchanted or appalled those she met. She is said to have seduced Prince Albrecht, a brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, and she even gave a private dance for both the king and the visiting Tsar Nikolai I of Russia. . . ." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Lola Montez is said to have an affair with Prince Albrecht, a brother of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. " (Dieter Wunderlich)
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| Heinrich LXXII of Reuss zu Ebersdorf @Wikipedia |
"Clearly, if Rosanna, now called Lola, wished to fulfill her ambition of becoming a dancer, she would have to go someplace where nobody knew her past. So the Irish girl departed for the Continent in July 1843. Her first port of call was Germany and the modest feudal palace at Ebersdorf on the Saale, near Gera, whose bachelor prince, Heinrich LXXII, had been one of her fans in London. She arrived in such a cyclone of cigarette smoke and sexuality that the prince could not cope, especially when she began draping flower chains around his neck in full view of his staff. When she tired of the prince's company she embarrassed him so publicly during a picnic that he asked her to leave his realm. She rather cuttingly replied,'That's not such a long trip,' before clambering into a carriage and rattling eastwards towards Dresden." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Better luck befell the wanderer at her next attempt to establish intimate contact with a member of the hoch geboren, Henry LXXII. His principality, Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf (afterwards amalgamated with Thuringia), had the longest name, but the smallest area, of any in the kingdom, for it was only about the size of a pocket-handkerchief. But to Lola this was of no great consequence. What, however, was of consequence was that he was a millionaire (in thalers) and possessed an inflammable heart." (The Magnificent Montez)
"Where Lola was concerned, she very soon put a match to the inflammable, if arrogant, heart of Prince Henry, and, as a result, was "commanded" to accompany him to his miniature court at Ebersdorf. She did not, however, stop there very long, for, by her imperious attitude and contempt of etiquette, she disturbed the petty officials and bourgeois citizens surrounding it to such a degree that they made formal complaints to his High-and-Mightiness. At first he would not hear a word on the subject. Such was his favourite's position that criticism of her actions was perilously near lèse-majesté and incurred reprisals. As soon, however, as the amorous princeling discovered that his bank balance was being depleted considerably beyond the amount for which he had budgeted, he suffered a sudden spasm of virtue and issued marching-orders to the "Fair Impure," as his shocked and strait-laced Ebersdorfians dubbed the intruder among them. There was also some suggestion, advanced by a gardener, that she had a habit of taking a short cut across the princely flower-beds when she was in a hurry. This was the last straw. "Leave my kingdom at once," exclaimed the furious Henry. "You are nothing but a feminine devil!' Not in the least discomfited by this change of opinion, Lola riposted by presenting a lengthy and detailed account for "services rendered'; and, when it had been met (and not[ 94] before), shook the dust of Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf from her pretty feet. 'You can keep your Thuringia," was her parting-shot. 'I wouldn't have it as a gift."' (The Magnificent Montez)
" . . . At Baden it was rumoured that the Prince of Orange (probably an old friend of her Simla days) was among her admirers. There also she met that puissant prince, Henry LXXII. of Reuss, who straightway fell in love with her. He invited her to pay a visit to his exiguous dominions, and she went, probably feeling that she was playing the part of sparrow-hawk. At the Court of Reuss she suffered agonies of boredom. The etiquette was as strict as in the palace of the Most Catholic King, and the deference exacted by Henry LXXII. as profound as though he had been Czar of all the Russias. True, in his territory, only half as large again as the county of Middlesex, he wielded a power as absolute as that autocrat’s. Of this pettiness the beautiful stranger soon showed her impatience. Her infirmity of temper betrayed itself. She infringed His Highness’s prerogative by chastising his subjects—still, this could be overlooked by an indulgent prince. But when Henry one morning beheld Lola walking straight across his flower-beds, he felt that it was time to vindicate the outraged majesty of the throne. With his own august hands he wrote and signed an order, expelling Mademoiselle Montez from the principality. To this decree effect was only given when His Highness had satisfied to the last pfennig a tremendously long bill for expenses, presented to him by the audacious offender." (Lola Montez: An Adventuress of the 'Forties)
"At that time, the life of a stage performer embodied the hypocrisy of Victorian society. Ballet dancers, for example, were paid less than a living wage, as the expectation was that they would use their exposure to gain a lover from among the upper class who would sustain them. Here it was, then, that Lola would find herself bartering her sexual favours for power and influence. Her first appearance, in London, was initially a success, and her performance finished to thunderous applause and rave reviews in the papers. Unfortunately for Lola, some gentlemen in the crowd recognised her as the notorious adulteress Eliza James, while others recognized her “Spanish” dancing as a fraudulent imitation. Though she vigorously defended herself in letters to editors, she was forced to decamp to Paris. The controversy had the effect of amplifying her fame, however, and she snared at least one highly born admirer – Prince Heinrich of Leipzig. He took her as a mistress, and when she proved to be a touch too lively for his taste, he got rid of her by arranging a series of appearances in Dresden, which soon led to an engagement in Berlin. There she met with a mixed reception – her sensuality won over the crowd, but her lack of technique and variety offended the critics. Here again, her knack for catching the eyes of the rich and famous served her well, and she wound up dancing at a reception that Frederick William IV of Prussia was holding for the Czar of Russia. A quick rise, for a woman with a dancing career of, at the time, less than three month’s duration." (Headstuff)
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Jung Bahadur Rana |
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| Jung Bahadur Rana @Wikipedia |
Lover in 1849.
Prime Minister of Nepal.
"Here we take off on another trajectory to introduce Lola Montez. She was the lover of King Ludwig I of Bavaria whose relationship had attributed to the king's fall from grace and exile. Lola Montez was the self-styled Spanish dancer who had bewitched the Continent by her scintillating "spider" dance. Little did people know that she was actually an Irish lass born Eliza Gilbert. Wherever she went people fell for her beauty and charm. She was at the Jardin Mabille that afternoon when Jung Bahadur arrived as she was performing at the Bal Mabille, an institute of dance founded in 1831 AD. She coquettishly approached Jung Bahadur while he was practicing his shooting at a range. The chivalrous Jung saw the young beauty and offered her his gun to shoot. Lola took the gun and accidentally pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting the thigh of Colonel Dhir Shumsher. The wound was not a serious one and Jung laughed out loud in a guffaw, the accident was considered a minor episode in the larger design of things to follow. Jung Bahadur was smitten by the twenty nine year old Lola. An affair followed to the chagrin of Jung's retinue including his brothers Jagat and Dhir who thought it best to hush it. Henceforth, wherever Jung visited Lola was not far behind. In a short while she was already a part of Jung's Nepalese contingent. It was rumored that Lola spoke broken Hindi, perhaps her parents had served in India, which made Jung's conversation with her less tiring than with Laura Bell. Jung had a lighter step henceforth." (Jung Bahadur Jana and the Dancing Damsels - the Sojourn in France)
| Ludwig I of Bavaria |
Ludwig I von Bayern (1786-1868)
Lover in 1846-1848
"Lola Montes was the pseudonym of Maria Dolores Elisa Rosana Gilbert, a Scottish dancer who became the mistress of Louis I of Bavaria." (South American Independence: Gender, Politics, Text: 365)
First encounter.
" . . . Upon arriving in Munich in 1846, Montez went directly to the royal palace and demanded an audience with the 60-year-old ruler. A hopeless romantic, who was also no stranger to the ladies, Ludwig agreed to receive her in his private apartments. Accounts of their first meeting tell us that Lola not only danced for the aging monarch, but revealed her breasts to him when he asked her if theu were real." (Villainy in Western Culture: 168)
"In Munich, Montez came to the attention of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who had a love of all things Spanish (and female). Reportedly, when she first met the Bavarian royal in 1846, he “pointed inquiringly toward [her] well-formed bosom and said, ‘Nature or art?' Montez responded by cutting open the front of her dress “to reveal Nature’s endowment.” Although the story of their first encounter may very well be a fabrication, there is no doubt that Ludwig was soon smitten with Montez." (All That is Interesting)
" . . . While dancing in Munich, Lola attracted the attention of King Louis the First of Bavaria, who was in his 60s at the time, and she subsequently became his mistress. . . ." (Women of the Western Frontier in Fact, Fiction, and Film: 75)
Lola's benefits from the royal affair.
"Presenting herself to the Bavarian court as a Spanish noblewoman, Lola became acquainted with King Ludwig I. He was captivated by her and made her his official mistress. Ludwig lavished gifts on Lola including a house with all the trappings and a substantial income. On his birthday, February 17, 1847, he went so far as to make her Countess Marie von Landsfeld, and bestow Bavarian citizenship on her." (Ozmore & Abernethy)
"From this moment on, Ludwig admitted to being utterly bewitched, and'in the grip of a passion like never before.' Five days after their initial meeting, and following her performance at the state theater, he introduced her to the officials of his court as 'my best friend,' and ordered them to 'see to it that you accord her every possible respect.' Over the next six month, obeying that command entailed commissioning a portrait of her, which was hung in Ludwig's private 'Gallery of Beauties'; making her a citizen of Bavaria; elevating her to the country's nobility as the Countess of Landsfeld; providing her with a generous yearly annuity; and building her a palace in Munich's fashionable Barerstrasse district. At 27, Marie Gilbert James had arrived." (Villainy in Western Culture: 168)
Lola's favours to her royal paramour.
"In return for these many favors, Lola became Ludwig's devoted Maitresse du Roi (Mistress of the King). Like a latter-day Pompadour, she coddled and flattered tha aging king. She also indulged all of his sexual whims. 'At his request she gave him flannel swatches secreted in her vulva, let him suck her unwashed toes, and talked dirty. She wanted him to 'besar [fuck] her with great gusto and pleasure'; she said her 'cuno belonged to him.'" (Villainy in Western Culture: 168)
Why Her?: " . . . Ludwig fell in love with Lola's beauty, her mind and her esprit fort; and Lola delighted in the company of this amiable, intelligent monarch who allowed her to flex her political muscle and to taste the heady wine of power. . . The king was enamored with Lola's mind as he was with her beauty. Many a sane man has bought a woman he admires flowers each day---Ludwig's daily bouquets for Lola were poems. . . . " (Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours: 273)
Why Him?: "There are many accounts of King Ludwig's fascination with the dance, but few make an honest attempt to explain Lola's feelings for the king. The assumption that her only interests were venal does both dancer and king an injustice. Ludwig was an easy man to like, and in some ways his temperament was very similar to Lola's. As well as being very learned, the king was a tremendous enthusiast who carried along with him anyone willing to listen and learn. . . He was gracious, kind, and excellent company; nor should the particular glamour and appeal of absolute monarch be underestimated. . . . " (Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours: 273)
Benefits: " . . . Ludwig made her the Countess of Landsfeld, and granted her a large annuity. . . . " (Cerebral Boinkfest)
Nikolai I of Russia.
Lover in 1843.
"Over the next decade, in various European cities, the sexy Montez had affairs - with Dumas and Liszt before moving even higher up the A-list to bed Czar Nicholas I of Russia. In 1853, she had an open liaison with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and was expelled from the country, by his wife. Montez then moved to California, entertaining gold miners with her daring new Spider Dance, a mid-19th century version of the ancient Dance of the Seven Veils." (The Age)
Aristocrat lovers.
Lord George Lennox.
Lover in 1841.
Aide de Camp to Governor-General of Madras.
Aide de Camp to Governor-General of Madras.
Lieutenant in 4th Madras Cavalry.
Son of Lord George Lennox.
"However, in Madras, a dashing army officer named Lennox, joined the ship. He was the grandson of the Duke of Richmond, and he and Eliza became lovers. When they arrived in London, they continued their affair and Lennox introduced her to several influential men. When word of their affair reached her husband, he filed for divorce siting her adultery with Lennox. Lennox soon proved no more constant a lover than her husband. He soon left her with no means of support. Eliza now faced a quandary that many 'fallen' women in that era faced. She was virtually unemployable as a governess or a lady's companion. Instead of turning to prostitution, Eliza decided to go on the stage." (Scandalous Woman)
"They were living apart by the latter months of 1841 when, following a fall from a horse at Meerut, Rosanna boarded a ship bound for England. Also on board was a wealthy young cavalry officer, Lieutenant George Lennox, aide-de-camp to the Governor-General, Lord Elphinstone. Before long they were kissing, and, much to the excitement of the ship's crew, Mrs. James was espied putting on her stockings with Lieutenant Lennox present in her cabin. On their return to London in February 18141, the couple made straight for the Imperial Hotel, Covent Garden, where, as the courts would later hear, they 'lay naked and alone in one and the same bed . . . and there had the Carnal use and knowledge of each other's Bodies.' The following year Captain James launched a divorce action, citing adultery as his grounds and pointing the finder at Lennox. He sought to 'recover damages for the loss of the affection and society of his wife'. Rosanna claimed that James had already run off with the wife of a fellow-officer, but this may have been a fabrication. She was, it is now clear, a compulsive liar." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"In her memoirs Lola wrote that "The child sought only a protector but she found a master." Disillusion was swift, though she accompanied her husband back to India where mother and daughter, the vivacious Mrs Craigie and Mrs James, charmed the bored officers' wives. Her mother proved no support when she left James, however, telling her to return to Britain or get back to her husband. On the lengthy sea-journey to Southampton, the rebellious Eliza struck up a scandalous friendship with a young aristocrat, George Lennox, visiting his cabin alone and lingering with him on the poop deck when all the ladies had retired after dinner. So infuriated was the Captain that he barred Mrs James from his table. Surrounded by peeping eyes, the couple perhaps enjoyed putting on a show: the cabin door swung open rather too often to reveal Lennox lacing Eliza's stays or watching as she rolled up her stockings. Once in London, Eliza resisted all attempts by her stepfather's family to remove her to Scotland. Instead, she shared a hotel room with Lennox, then moved to fashionable Half Moon St, a kept woman and striking new figure in society. But the affair faltered, and Eliza retreated to digs in the Hornsey Road. News of the scandal had filtered back to Lieutenant James and he wanted a divorce; the laws of the time left neither party free to remarry. At 19, she was a woman with a past, a near-untouchable in Victorian society. Her next move was spectacular: she decamped to Spain, where Eliza Gilbert James disappeared forever, and Lola Montez was born. Incredibly, this English-speaking, untrained dancer reinvented herself as a Spanish aristocrat's daughter with an imperious manner, a fondness for hand-rolled cigarettes and a repertoire of traditional dances." (Independent)
" . . . In late 1841, recovering from a horse-fall at Meerut, Lola left India. On board her ship was a young cavalry officer, Lt. George Lennox, son of Lord George Lennox and Aide de Camp to Governor General Lord Elphinstone. Thew were seen kissing and Mrs. James was seen putting on her stockings with Lennox present in her cabin. . . ." (Turtle Bunbury)
First Encounter: "About ten days into the voyage, the ship stopped at Madras, capital of another of the three presidencies of the East India Company. One of the passengers boarding at Madras, George Lennox, quickly caught her attention, and she must have caught his. Lennox, not yet twenty, was a lieutenant in the Fourth Madras Cavalry, but he held the prestigious position of aide de camp to the governor-general, Lord Elphinstone. He was a nephew of the Duke of Richmond, one of the richest and most influential members of the British nobility; but the Lennox family was large, and the power and wealth were rather diluted by the time they reached his level. He had been in Madras for more than three years and was returning home for the first time." (Lola Montez: A Life: 24)
Effects on the lovers' family, other people and society.
" . . . On board ship and in London she entered into an illicit relationship with George Lennox, aide-de-camp to the governor of Madras, which led to a legal separation from James on Dec. 15, 1842, but not a complete divorce." (Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2: 565)
"Lola was maintaining a fairly low public profile---a very low one by her standards---but was associating with an odd group. Most prominent among her acquaintances was Lord Henry Brougham, a leader of the Whig party and former Lord Chancellor of England, a man of intellect who was nearly as famous for his eccentricities as Lola Montez. Lord Brougham, a happily married man, reportedly was seen with the Countess of Landsfeld in public, but his relationship with her appears to have been a good deal more casual than she chose to portray it. In Half Moon Street she held receptions at which gentlemen of good and less good London society appeared, including earls, barristers, journalists, military officers, politicians, and men of uncertain profession." (Lola Montez: A Life: 250)
Julius, Graf von Schwandt.
Lover in 1848.
Son of Lord George Lennox.
"However, in Madras, a dashing army officer named Lennox, joined the ship. He was the grandson of the Duke of Richmond, and he and Eliza became lovers. When they arrived in London, they continued their affair and Lennox introduced her to several influential men. When word of their affair reached her husband, he filed for divorce siting her adultery with Lennox. Lennox soon proved no more constant a lover than her husband. He soon left her with no means of support. Eliza now faced a quandary that many 'fallen' women in that era faced. She was virtually unemployable as a governess or a lady's companion. Instead of turning to prostitution, Eliza decided to go on the stage." (Scandalous Woman)
"They were living apart by the latter months of 1841 when, following a fall from a horse at Meerut, Rosanna boarded a ship bound for England. Also on board was a wealthy young cavalry officer, Lieutenant George Lennox, aide-de-camp to the Governor-General, Lord Elphinstone. Before long they were kissing, and, much to the excitement of the ship's crew, Mrs. James was espied putting on her stockings with Lieutenant Lennox present in her cabin. On their return to London in February 18141, the couple made straight for the Imperial Hotel, Covent Garden, where, as the courts would later hear, they 'lay naked and alone in one and the same bed . . . and there had the Carnal use and knowledge of each other's Bodies.' The following year Captain James launched a divorce action, citing adultery as his grounds and pointing the finder at Lennox. He sought to 'recover damages for the loss of the affection and society of his wife'. Rosanna claimed that James had already run off with the wife of a fellow-officer, but this may have been a fabrication. She was, it is now clear, a compulsive liar." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"In her memoirs Lola wrote that "The child sought only a protector but she found a master." Disillusion was swift, though she accompanied her husband back to India where mother and daughter, the vivacious Mrs Craigie and Mrs James, charmed the bored officers' wives. Her mother proved no support when she left James, however, telling her to return to Britain or get back to her husband. On the lengthy sea-journey to Southampton, the rebellious Eliza struck up a scandalous friendship with a young aristocrat, George Lennox, visiting his cabin alone and lingering with him on the poop deck when all the ladies had retired after dinner. So infuriated was the Captain that he barred Mrs James from his table. Surrounded by peeping eyes, the couple perhaps enjoyed putting on a show: the cabin door swung open rather too often to reveal Lennox lacing Eliza's stays or watching as she rolled up her stockings. Once in London, Eliza resisted all attempts by her stepfather's family to remove her to Scotland. Instead, she shared a hotel room with Lennox, then moved to fashionable Half Moon St, a kept woman and striking new figure in society. But the affair faltered, and Eliza retreated to digs in the Hornsey Road. News of the scandal had filtered back to Lieutenant James and he wanted a divorce; the laws of the time left neither party free to remarry. At 19, she was a woman with a past, a near-untouchable in Victorian society. Her next move was spectacular: she decamped to Spain, where Eliza Gilbert James disappeared forever, and Lola Montez was born. Incredibly, this English-speaking, untrained dancer reinvented herself as a Spanish aristocrat's daughter with an imperious manner, a fondness for hand-rolled cigarettes and a repertoire of traditional dances." (Independent)
" . . . In late 1841, recovering from a horse-fall at Meerut, Lola left India. On board her ship was a young cavalry officer, Lt. George Lennox, son of Lord George Lennox and Aide de Camp to Governor General Lord Elphinstone. Thew were seen kissing and Mrs. James was seen putting on her stockings with Lennox present in her cabin. . . ." (Turtle Bunbury)
First Encounter: "About ten days into the voyage, the ship stopped at Madras, capital of another of the three presidencies of the East India Company. One of the passengers boarding at Madras, George Lennox, quickly caught her attention, and she must have caught his. Lennox, not yet twenty, was a lieutenant in the Fourth Madras Cavalry, but he held the prestigious position of aide de camp to the governor-general, Lord Elphinstone. He was a nephew of the Duke of Richmond, one of the richest and most influential members of the British nobility; but the Lennox family was large, and the power and wealth were rather diluted by the time they reached his level. He had been in Madras for more than three years and was returning home for the first time." (Lola Montez: A Life: 24)
Effects on the lovers' family, other people and society.
" . . . On board ship and in London she entered into an illicit relationship with George Lennox, aide-de-camp to the governor of Madras, which led to a legal separation from James on Dec. 15, 1842, but not a complete divorce." (Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2: 565)
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| Henry Brougham 1st Baron Brougham @Wikipedia |
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham & Vaux (1778-1868)
"Lola was maintaining a fairly low public profile---a very low one by her standards---but was associating with an odd group. Most prominent among her acquaintances was Lord Henry Brougham, a leader of the Whig party and former Lord Chancellor of England, a man of intellect who was nearly as famous for his eccentricities as Lola Montez. Lord Brougham, a happily married man, reportedly was seen with the Countess of Landsfeld in public, but his relationship with her appears to have been a good deal more casual than she chose to portray it. In Half Moon Street she held receptions at which gentlemen of good and less good London society appeared, including earls, barristers, journalists, military officers, politicians, and men of uncertain profession." (Lola Montez: A Life: 250)
Julius, Graf von Schwandt.
Lover in 1848.
"At the theater she noticed the good-looking Julius, Lord of Schwandt, who had just turned twenty and was a cousin of the Count of Schleissen. His parents died some years before, and he was said to be in life for a fortune when he reached majority. Baron Meller, who was also in the audience, agreed to introduce the countess to the young man, and Julius was fascinated by Lola." (Lola Montez: A Life: 239)
"End of October 1848: Lola Montez moves with Papon to a smaller house near Geneva. While the twenty-seven-year-old begins an affair with the seven-year-younger Julius Graf von Schwandt, she separates from Auguste Papon. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich"
"End of October 1848: Lola Montez moves with Papon to a smaller house near Geneva. While the twenty-seven-year-old begins an affair with the seven-year-younger Julius Graf von Schwandt, she separates from Auguste Papon. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich"
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| James Howard Harris 3rd Earl of Malmesbury @Wikipedia |
James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury. (1807-1889)
Lover in 1843.
Son of James Harris, 2nd Earl of Malmesbury & Harriet Susan Dashwood.
Husband of Lady Corisande Emma Bennet, daughter of Charles Augustus Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville & Corisanda, daughter of Antoine, duc de Gramont.
"Now a ‘ruined woman’, and with no other means of supporting herself, she became a mistress to a number of wealthy men in London, according to her biographer, James Morton. One of them, Lord Malmesbury, paid for her to visit Spain where she learned Spanish dancing, then highly fashionable in London. This provide Lola with the erotic artistry for which she would gain global repute. She reinvented herself as Lola Montez, a Spanish damsel of noble birth, and performed ‘genuine’ Spanish dances at London’s Theatre Royal, where crowds flocked to see her and news of her incredible talent and ravishing beauty quickly spread." (Daily Mail)
"The English nobleman must have been Lord Malmesbury, who alludes to her as follows: 'This was a most remarkable woman, and may be said by her conduct at Munich to have set fire to the magazine of revolution, which was ready to burst forth all over Europe, and which made the year 1848 memorable. I made her acquaintance by accident, as I was going up to London from Heron Court, in the railway. The Consul at Southampton asked me to take charge of a Spanish lady who had been recommended to his care, and who had just landed. I consented to do this, and was introduced by him to a remarkably handsome person, who was in deep mourning, and who appeared to be in great distress. As we were along in the carriage, she, of her own accord, informed me, in bad English, that she was the widow of Don Diego de Leon, who had lately been shot by the Carlists after he was taken prisoner, and that she was going to (An Englishman in Paris (Notes and Recollections): 102)
"According to a French journalist, an "English Milord" made Lola's acquaintance in Madrid. This was Lord Malmesbury, "who was so dazzled by the purity of her Spanish accent that he adopted her as a compagnon de voyage, and shared with her the horrors of bad cooking and the joys of nights in Granada." This fact, however, if it be a fact,[48] is not to be found in the volume of "memoirs" that he afterwards published.
Still, it seems that Lord Malmesbury did meet Lola. His own account of the incident is that, on returning to England from abroad, in the spring of the year 1843, he was asked by the Spanish Consul at Southampton to escort to London a young woman who had just landed there. He found her, he says, "a remarkably handsome person, who was in deep mourning and who appeared to be in great distress." While they were alone in the railway carriage, he improved the occasion and extracted from his travelling companion the story of her life.
"She informed me," he says, "in bad English that she was the widow of Don Diego Leon, who had lately been shot by the Carlists after he was taken prisoner, and that she was going to London to sell some Spanish property that she possessed, and give lessons in singing, as she was very poor."
Notwithstanding his diplomatic training, Lord Malmesbury swallowed this story, as well as much else with which it was embroidered. One thing led to another; and the acquaintance thus fortuitously begun in a railway carriage was continued in London. There he got up a concert for her benefit at his town house, where, in addition to singing Castilian ballads, his protégée sold veils and fans among the audience; and he also gave her an introduction to a theatrical manager, with results that neither of them had foreseen." (The Magnificent Montez: 481)
Lover in 1843.
Son of James Harris, 2nd Earl of Malmesbury & Harriet Susan Dashwood.
Husband of Lady Corisande Emma Bennet, daughter of Charles Augustus Bennet, 5th Earl of Tankerville & Corisanda, daughter of Antoine, duc de Gramont.
"Now a ‘ruined woman’, and with no other means of supporting herself, she became a mistress to a number of wealthy men in London, according to her biographer, James Morton. One of them, Lord Malmesbury, paid for her to visit Spain where she learned Spanish dancing, then highly fashionable in London. This provide Lola with the erotic artistry for which she would gain global repute. She reinvented herself as Lola Montez, a Spanish damsel of noble birth, and performed ‘genuine’ Spanish dances at London’s Theatre Royal, where crowds flocked to see her and news of her incredible talent and ravishing beauty quickly spread." (Daily Mail)
"The English nobleman must have been Lord Malmesbury, who alludes to her as follows: 'This was a most remarkable woman, and may be said by her conduct at Munich to have set fire to the magazine of revolution, which was ready to burst forth all over Europe, and which made the year 1848 memorable. I made her acquaintance by accident, as I was going up to London from Heron Court, in the railway. The Consul at Southampton asked me to take charge of a Spanish lady who had been recommended to his care, and who had just landed. I consented to do this, and was introduced by him to a remarkably handsome person, who was in deep mourning, and who appeared to be in great distress. As we were along in the carriage, she, of her own accord, informed me, in bad English, that she was the widow of Don Diego de Leon, who had lately been shot by the Carlists after he was taken prisoner, and that she was going to (An Englishman in Paris (Notes and Recollections): 102)
"According to a French journalist, an "English Milord" made Lola's acquaintance in Madrid. This was Lord Malmesbury, "who was so dazzled by the purity of her Spanish accent that he adopted her as a compagnon de voyage, and shared with her the horrors of bad cooking and the joys of nights in Granada." This fact, however, if it be a fact,[48] is not to be found in the volume of "memoirs" that he afterwards published.
Still, it seems that Lord Malmesbury did meet Lola. His own account of the incident is that, on returning to England from abroad, in the spring of the year 1843, he was asked by the Spanish Consul at Southampton to escort to London a young woman who had just landed there. He found her, he says, "a remarkably handsome person, who was in deep mourning and who appeared to be in great distress." While they were alone in the railway carriage, he improved the occasion and extracted from his travelling companion the story of her life.
"She informed me," he says, "in bad English that she was the widow of Don Diego Leon, who had lately been shot by the Carlists after he was taken prisoner, and that she was going to London to sell some Spanish property that she possessed, and give lessons in singing, as she was very poor."
Notwithstanding his diplomatic training, Lord Malmesbury swallowed this story, as well as much else with which it was embroidered. One thing led to another; and the acquaintance thus fortuitously begun in a railway carriage was continued in London. There he got up a concert for her benefit at his town house, where, in addition to singing Castilian ballads, his protégée sold veils and fans among the audience; and he also gave her an introduction to a theatrical manager, with results that neither of them had foreseen." (The Magnificent Montez: 481)
"December 12, 1857: Lola Montez leaves New York aboard the Fulton and travels to Le Havre to marry the forty-three-year-old prince Ludwig Johann Sulkowski in Paris. Sulkowski, who fled Austria in 1848, runs a farm in the north of the state of New York. Lola Montez does not know that he also has a wife and five children there. Only in Paris does she realize that he has deceived her. Then she returns immediately. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich"
"On 12 December 1857, Lola left New York City on the Fulton, traveling to Le Havre and to what she apparently believed would be a final, safe harbor in her life. Lola had become reacquainted with Prince Ludwig Johann Sulkowski, a forty-three-year-old Austrian nobleman she had met in Berlin. . . ." (Lola Montez: A Life: 365)
"But Lola still had one last disastrous romantic liaison in her. Some years before coming to America she had met an Austrian aristocrat by the name of prince Ludwig Johann Sulkowski. The two renewed their acquaintance in New York and Lola was left with the quite definite impression that she was to be a princess. In late 1857, she duly sold all her goods and sailed to Paris to meet her prince and marry him. But once in Paris, there was no prince. He did not show up. Lola soon learned that, as he had a wife and several children back in Austria." (Wild Irish Women: 277)
"On 12 December 1857, Lola left New York City on the Fulton, traveling to Le Havre and to what she apparently believed would be a final, safe harbor in her life. Lola had become reacquainted with Prince Ludwig Johann Sulkowski, a forty-three-year-old Austrian nobleman she had met in Berlin. . . ." (Lola Montez: A Life: 365)
"But Lola still had one last disastrous romantic liaison in her. Some years before coming to America she had met an Austrian aristocrat by the name of prince Ludwig Johann Sulkowski. The two renewed their acquaintance in New York and Lola was left with the quite definite impression that she was to be a princess. In late 1857, she duly sold all her goods and sailed to Paris to meet her prince and marry him. But once in Paris, there was no prince. He did not show up. Lola soon learned that, as he had a wife and several children back in Austria." (Wild Irish Women: 277)
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| Sir Robert Peel 3rd Baronet @Wikipedia |
Robert Peel, 3rd Baronet (1822-1895)
Lover in 1846.
"She and Peel lived it up during a month-long party hosted in Stuttgart by the King of Wurttemberg, but when Peel began complaining about her spendthrift ways she packed her bags and decided to head to Vienna, calling in at the Munich Octoberfest on the way." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
Lover in 1846.
"She and Peel lived it up during a month-long party hosted in Stuttgart by the King of Wurttemberg, but when Peel began complaining about her spendthrift ways she packed her bags and decided to head to Vienna, calling in at the Munich Octoberfest on the way." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"In August they [Leigh & Lola] left Belgium, traveling to the fashionable resorts in Germany. Lola and Leigh seem to have parted there. For a few days she was seen in Heidelberg in the company of a Russian nobleman from Latvia, probably Baron Georges Meller-Zakomelsky, whose path would cross hers again. It may have been Count Meller who introduced her to a new and influential admirer, Robert Peel, the twenty-four-year-old secretary to the British ambassador in Switzerland and eldest son of Sir Robert Peel, who just three months earlier had retired as British Prime Minister. The intelligent young diplomat was small, dark, good-looking, and vivacious, but he lacked his father's sobriety, integrity, and sense of purpose. Peel had just been transferred to Bern after two years in Madrid, and he was already bored. After his experience in Spain, he must have realized that there was something dubious about Lola's alleged origins, but he wasn't about to trouble himself about the provenance of a pretty woman. Lola seems to have left her Russian friend and Peel behind when she returned to Heidelberg to try to intercept Leigh." (Lola Montez: A Life: 93)
"At Bern, the quaint, beautiful old city of fountains and arcades, the deposed dictatrix of Bavaria found a pleasant asylum. She was greeted with special cordiality by the English Charge d'Affaires, Mr. Robert Peel (son of the more celebrated statesman of the same name), whose fine presence, gaiety of manner, and brilliant conversational powers rendered him a universal favourite. Peel was a warm supporter of the anti-clerical policy of the Government to which he was accredited, and on political grounds alone, must have felt the strongest sympathy for the Countess of Landsfeld. Peisner, Hertheim, and Laibinger seem to have at last parted company with Lola at Bern, for a letter in her handwriting is preserved, dated from that city, 2nd March 1848, alluding to their probable departure, and directing that a packet be forwarded to Peisner." (Lola Montez: An Adventuress of the Forties)
"On October 5, 1846, Lola arrived in Munich with her pug Zampa and her lover of the moment, the junior Roebrt Peel, son of the former British prime minister. Toways later she was trolling for an engagement at the Royal Theatre. But she may also have been looking to trade up in the romance department." (Royal Romances: Titillating Tales of Passion and Power in the Palaces of Europe)
Commoner lovers.
The Alemannen (Lola's Harem).
The Alemannen (Lola's Harem).
Adler.
A German medical man.
" . . . From the reports of remarkable men and prominent citizens shooting each other in the public streets, of bandits raiding the suburbs, of fires and floods, that accompany this announcement, we should imagine that domestic retirement in San Francisco was at that time subject to frequent and unpleasant interruption. On this account, perhaps, Mr. and Mrs. Hull spent much of their time hunting in the valley of the Sacramento. Lola was in search of new sensations, and for the moment the bear seemed a more attractive quarry than the man. But before long a German medical man, named Adler, himself a mighty hunter, came across her path. His prowess excited her admiration, and he at once fell a victim to the shafts from her[Pg 202] quiver. Hull was discarded and the German reigned in his stead." (Lola Montez: An Adventuress of the 'Forties)
Alexandre Dumas pere (1802-1870)
"Lola, still only 23, moved on to Paris where she shared her favours with some who paid, some who did not — among them, reputedly the father of the great novelist Alexandre Dumas — and continued to dance." (Daily Mail)
Alexandre Dumas, the younger.
Lover in 1847.
"Lola didn't dance again for a year, but she remained in Paris, where her fans included Alexandre Dumas, the larger-than-life author who was then riding high on the success of his latest historical novel, The Three Musketeers. While it appears that she didn't necessarily seduce Dumas, she was certainly not shy of lovers in Paris, on whose means she managed to live in much comfort." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Some men found her too hot to handle. One exhausted lover, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, declared ungallantly, 'She has the evil eye. Those who look upon her will die!'. . . ." (Affair to Remember: 88)
"Her relationship with Dumas isn't particularly well documented. It seems to have been a sort of 'one-night stand' affair, though in Lola's case this lasted several days. . . ." (The Most Famous Irish People You've Never Heard Of)
Alexandre-Henri Dujarier (1815-1845)
Lover in 1847.
"Lola didn't dance again for a year, but she remained in Paris, where her fans included Alexandre Dumas, the larger-than-life author who was then riding high on the success of his latest historical novel, The Three Musketeers. While it appears that she didn't necessarily seduce Dumas, she was certainly not shy of lovers in Paris, on whose means she managed to live in much comfort." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Some men found her too hot to handle. One exhausted lover, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, declared ungallantly, 'She has the evil eye. Those who look upon her will die!'. . . ." (Affair to Remember: 88)
"Her relationship with Dumas isn't particularly well documented. It seems to have been a sort of 'one-night stand' affair, though in Lola's case this lasted several days. . . ." (The Most Famous Irish People You've Never Heard Of)
Alexandre-Henri Dujarier (1815-1845)
Lover in 1844-1845.
Editor & owner of La Presse.
Editor & owner of La Presse.
"As Lola always went out of her way to woo journalists in the hope of favorable notices, there were many who fell under the spell of those magnificent blue eyes. One was Alexandre Henri Dujarier, part owner and literary editor of the influential newspaper La Presse. Dujarier was twenty-nine, handsome, rich, highly accomplished, engaging and full of mischievous good humor. When he met Lola she had spent several months in the circles of the Parisian intellectuals, and the natural sharpness of her mind had been finely honed in their company. Already in awe of her physical perfection, Dujarier was not disappointed with her intellect. They were instantly attracted, but Lola approached the relationship with uncharacteristic caution. Dujarier, for all his bravado, was by nature reticent with women, and had reluctantly acquired a mistress almost for the sake of form. He quickly understood that Lola's notoriety, her exquisite clothes and her flirtatious manner were all cultivated to help secure theatrical contacts. He notice that she withdrew from intrusive approaches, and set out deliberately. . . ." (Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours: 258)
"In 1844 Lola Finally hit Paris. She got the inevitable mixed reviews at the Paris Opera, but her love life improved. She was taken under the wing of a powerful and influential lover, Henri Dujarier, a journalist and the editor of the influential La Presse. Dujarier financially supported his 'dear little girl', raised her profile in the press, and got her more engagements; for her part, Lola really seemed to love him. Then the first genuine tragedy of Lola's life struck. Dujarier was killed in 1845 in a dawn duel over a card game, and Lola was once again alone." (Wild Irish Women: 272)
"Towards the end of 1844 she met Alexandre-Henri Dujarier, the tall, handsome, bewhiskered and very wealthy joint editor and literary critic of La Presse. Their love for one another was genuine, and in the spring of 1845, with Dujarier's encouragement, she returned to the stage at the relatively downbeat Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin in the 10th arondissement of Paris. Her return was greeted with such enthusiasm that one critic estimated that 'the full harvest of fifty greenhouses' was thrown upon the stage, leaving her little room to dance. The reviews were again mixed, but Dujarier's influence ensured a sufficiently positive response for the 24-year-old Lola to believe that her dream of become a professional dancer was at last to be realised. But the dream died when the heavy-drinking Dujarier took to the card table one evening, racked up a massive debt and then insulted the man he owed money to. His refusal to apologise would lead him to a field in the Bois de Boulogne a few mornings later, where he was shot dead in a duel by the wronged party, Rosemond de Beauvallon. He had left a letter for Lola in which he offered her 'a thousand tendernesses, my dear Lola, my good little woman whom I love and who will be in my thought.' Alexander Dumas and Honore de Balzac were among those who carried his coffin." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Autumn 1844: Lola Montez meets the twenty-nine-year-old Alexandre Henri Dujarier, a co-owner and cultural editor of La Presse, and becomes his lover." Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich"
The Courtesan and the Newspaperman: "In Paris, Lola’s career was not successful, but she had some success as a courtesan beginning an affair with Alexander Dujarier, a young newspaper editor and owner. With Dujarier she was part of a literary crowd where she met and was rumored to have an affair with Alexander Dumas, pere. In 1845, Dujarier died in a duel unrelated to Lola. After the trial where his assailant was acquitted, she left Paris to go to Munich." (Ozmore & Abernethy)
The Courtesan and the Newspaperman: "In Paris, Lola’s career was not successful, but she had some success as a courtesan beginning an affair with Alexander Dujarier, a young newspaper editor and owner. With Dujarier she was part of a literary crowd where she met and was rumored to have an affair with Alexander Dumas, pere. In 1845, Dujarier died in a duel unrelated to Lola. After the trial where his assailant was acquitted, she left Paris to go to Munich." (Ozmore & Abernethy)
"Lola ran with the lions of Parisian society until the fall of 1844, when she met Alexandre Henri Dujarier, the young co-owner and cultural editor of La Presse. Dujarier was the epitome of the 'new man' in Paris. . . . " (Lola Montez: A Life:76)
Why him?: "It was said that Dujarier was swept away by Lola Monte the first time he saw her. Lola must have found the tall, thin young man with the receding black hair and bushy whiskers attractive, too, for she soon was established as his mistress, moving into an apartment next to his 39 rue Laffitte, in the elegant neighborhood near the cafes favored by the fashionable elite. She acted as his hostess at home and his companion when he went out. . . . " (Lola Montez: A Life:76)
Affair's End & Aftermath: "When the great love of her life, Alexandre Henri Dujarier, co-editor and literary critic of La Presse was killed in a duel in 1845, she left Paris." (Ludwig the First)
Personal & Family Background: "Born on 20 June 1815, just two days after Napoleon's empire finally crumbled at Waterloo, he was a child of the modest provincial bourgeoisie that was transforming society in the 1840s. He had gone into business at an early age, apparently establishing himself as a private banker, and through his shrewdness he had become extremely wealthy before he turned twenty-five. . . . " (Lola Montez: A Life:76).
"Alexandre Henri Dujarier was the editor of La Presse, one of the first mass market newspapers in France. He had seen Lola dance, and regardless of the merits of the dancing he had fallen desperately in love with the dancer. He managed to get backstage and introduce himself, and it was through his influence that Lola found her entry into the bohemian class that she grew to love. Here she found a spiritual home, and when Dujarier proposed marriage, she accepted. The terms of her divorce with Henry James made this bigamy, but it’s doubtful if Lola even considered that aspect of the affair. It was to turn out to be an academic issue, as the marriage never took place. Dujarier attended a party at the Palais Royal. He had asked Lola to stay home as he thought it would be a rough crowd, but a friend had invited him and he thought it would be rude to refuse. While there he got into an argument over a card game with Jean-Baptiste de Beauvallon, a journalist from a rival newspaper. The argument escalated to the point where Dujarier challenged the other man to a duel. The next morning, he regretted his rashness, but his honour refused to let him back down, and the duel went ahead. Dujarier fired first and missed, then dropped his pistol and accepted his fate. His opponent, a more practised shot, took careful aim and fired. Dujarier was killed, and Lola’s heart was broken." (Headstuff)
Why him?: "It was said that Dujarier was swept away by Lola Monte the first time he saw her. Lola must have found the tall, thin young man with the receding black hair and bushy whiskers attractive, too, for she soon was established as his mistress, moving into an apartment next to his 39 rue Laffitte, in the elegant neighborhood near the cafes favored by the fashionable elite. She acted as his hostess at home and his companion when he went out. . . . " (Lola Montez: A Life:76)
Affair's End & Aftermath: "When the great love of her life, Alexandre Henri Dujarier, co-editor and literary critic of La Presse was killed in a duel in 1845, she left Paris." (Ludwig the First)
Personal & Family Background: "Born on 20 June 1815, just two days after Napoleon's empire finally crumbled at Waterloo, he was a child of the modest provincial bourgeoisie that was transforming society in the 1840s. He had gone into business at an early age, apparently establishing himself as a private banker, and through his shrewdness he had become extremely wealthy before he turned twenty-five. . . . " (Lola Montez: A Life:76).
"Alexandre Henri Dujarier was the editor of La Presse, one of the first mass market newspapers in France. He had seen Lola dance, and regardless of the merits of the dancing he had fallen desperately in love with the dancer. He managed to get backstage and introduce himself, and it was through his influence that Lola found her entry into the bohemian class that she grew to love. Here she found a spiritual home, and when Dujarier proposed marriage, she accepted. The terms of her divorce with Henry James made this bigamy, but it’s doubtful if Lola even considered that aspect of the affair. It was to turn out to be an academic issue, as the marriage never took place. Dujarier attended a party at the Palais Royal. He had asked Lola to stay home as he thought it would be a rough crowd, but a friend had invited him and he thought it would be rude to refuse. While there he got into an argument over a card game with Jean-Baptiste de Beauvallon, a journalist from a rival newspaper. The argument escalated to the point where Dujarier challenged the other man to a duel. The next morning, he regretted his rashness, but his honour refused to let him back down, and the duel went ahead. Dujarier fired first and missed, then dropped his pistol and accepted his fate. His opponent, a more practised shot, took careful aim and fired. Dujarier was killed, and Lola’s heart was broken." (Headstuff)
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| Alonzo Delano @Sierra College |
"Alonzo Delano also befriended the other Grass Valley celebrity of the time — the scandalous Lola Montez — even being described, falsely, as the much younger Lola’s private secretary and possible love interest. However, Delano would have a falling out with the mercurial Montez." (Sierra College)
Auguste Papon.
"Insinuating himself into Lola's circle at about the same time was one of the most remarkable of the many strange people the countess would meet. August Papon, who was about the same age as Lola, styled himself 'Marquis de Sard,' telling everyone that his father had been adjunct principal of the Treasury of France and that his mother was from one of the oldest families of Provence. In fact, Monsieur Papon was a confidence man, but a curious one. His betrayals seem to have been effected at least as much to assert his superiority over his aristocratic victims as to separate them from their money. Papon's grandfather had been a waiter in a Geneva coffeehouse, his father a swindler who fled Geneva for the South of France. Auguste grew up in Toulouse, where he studied with distinction at the Catholic seminary there and was said to have been a protege of the archbishop. Deciding not to enter the priesthood, he became an attorney in Marseilles, where he gained a reputation for bad debts and bad conduct, which led to his disbarment. He fled to Switzerland, where his parents had set themselves up in Nyon on the north shore of Lake Geneva, and his small figure---with its dark, Mediterranean features and lively, malicious eyes---became well known in what passed for high society in Geneva. Papon missed no opportunity to be charming, but those around him sensed a calculation to his warmth. And he made no secret of his attachment to the goals of the Jesuits. The pseudo-marquis and the pseudo-Spaniard became acquainted when the Countess of Landsfeld checked in the Hotel de Bergues, where Papon had been living for several months. After Lola moved into the villa, Papon invited her to visit him and his family at their Villa Mon Repos at Nyon; the corsairs rowed her to the villa, where she was received by the Papons and the cure of Nyon. By July Ludwig began to notice that Lola's letters were coming less often. Finally, late in the month, Papon moved into the villa." (Lola Montez: A Life: 232)
Edward Payson Willis (1816-1853)
" . . . Edward Payson Willis, about whom little is known, later acted for a time as the traveling agent of the controversial danseuse Lola Montez, before he died prematurely in 1853 at the age of thirty-six." (Sentiment and Celebrity: Nathaniel Parker Willis and the Trials of Literary Fame: 212)
Frank Folland (1827-1856).
Lover in 1855.
American businessman.
Auguste Papon.
"Insinuating himself into Lola's circle at about the same time was one of the most remarkable of the many strange people the countess would meet. August Papon, who was about the same age as Lola, styled himself 'Marquis de Sard,' telling everyone that his father had been adjunct principal of the Treasury of France and that his mother was from one of the oldest families of Provence. In fact, Monsieur Papon was a confidence man, but a curious one. His betrayals seem to have been effected at least as much to assert his superiority over his aristocratic victims as to separate them from their money. Papon's grandfather had been a waiter in a Geneva coffeehouse, his father a swindler who fled Geneva for the South of France. Auguste grew up in Toulouse, where he studied with distinction at the Catholic seminary there and was said to have been a protege of the archbishop. Deciding not to enter the priesthood, he became an attorney in Marseilles, where he gained a reputation for bad debts and bad conduct, which led to his disbarment. He fled to Switzerland, where his parents had set themselves up in Nyon on the north shore of Lake Geneva, and his small figure---with its dark, Mediterranean features and lively, malicious eyes---became well known in what passed for high society in Geneva. Papon missed no opportunity to be charming, but those around him sensed a calculation to his warmth. And he made no secret of his attachment to the goals of the Jesuits. The pseudo-marquis and the pseudo-Spaniard became acquainted when the Countess of Landsfeld checked in the Hotel de Bergues, where Papon had been living for several months. After Lola moved into the villa, Papon invited her to visit him and his family at their Villa Mon Repos at Nyon; the corsairs rowed her to the villa, where she was received by the Papons and the cure of Nyon. By July Ludwig began to notice that Lola's letters were coming less often. Finally, late in the month, Papon moved into the villa." (Lola Montez: A Life: 232)
Edward Payson Willis (1816-1853)
" . . . Edward Payson Willis, about whom little is known, later acted for a time as the traveling agent of the controversial danseuse Lola Montez, before he died prematurely in 1853 at the age of thirty-six." (Sentiment and Celebrity: Nathaniel Parker Willis and the Trials of Literary Fame: 212)
Frank Folland (1827-1856).
Lover in 1855.
American businessman.
"In 1855, on foot of her successes in America, Lola departed on an Australian tour. Again, in the more liberal atmosphere of a young country she met with less censure and more full houses, but her personal life was still troubled. She fell in love with her married acting partner, twenty-seven-year-old Frank Folland. Their tempestuous affair continued for the duration of the whole tour. . . ." (Wild Irish Women: 275)
"A brief and bigamous marriage was over almost as soon as it had begun, and during a tour of Australia — where attempts were made to arrest her for indecency — she found a new lover, the married American-born actor Augustus Follin. It wasn’t long before the couple were quarreling, and she stabbed Follin with scissors. He recovered sufficiently to join her on a voyage home to America, but during the course of the journey mysteriously fell overboard and drowned. Some said Lola had pushed him, others that he committed suicide after another lovers’ fight. Whatever the truth, it was a more subdued Lola who arrived back in the States." (Daily Mail)
"On this voyage, her then lover and manager, Frank Folland, fell overboard and drowned. It was unclear whether it was an accident or deliberate suicide, however it hit Lola hard. Uncharacteristically, she sold her jewelry and gave the proceeds to Folland’s children." (Hidden historical heroines (#07: Lola Montez))
"May 1855: Lola Montez wins the musician Charles Eigenschenk for her plans to travel to Australia for guest appearances and composes a theater troupe, which also includes the twenty-seven-year-old Frank Folland (bourgeois: Augustus Noel Follin), his wife and his two Separated children in Cincinnati. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich
"A brief and bigamous marriage was over almost as soon as it had begun, and during a tour of Australia — where attempts were made to arrest her for indecency — she found a new lover, the married American-born actor Augustus Follin. It wasn’t long before the couple were quarreling, and she stabbed Follin with scissors. He recovered sufficiently to join her on a voyage home to America, but during the course of the journey mysteriously fell overboard and drowned. Some said Lola had pushed him, others that he committed suicide after another lovers’ fight. Whatever the truth, it was a more subdued Lola who arrived back in the States." (Daily Mail)
"On this voyage, her then lover and manager, Frank Folland, fell overboard and drowned. It was unclear whether it was an accident or deliberate suicide, however it hit Lola hard. Uncharacteristically, she sold her jewelry and gave the proceeds to Folland’s children." (Hidden historical heroines (#07: Lola Montez))
"May 1855: Lola Montez wins the musician Charles Eigenschenk for her plans to travel to Australia for guest appearances and composes a theater troupe, which also includes the twenty-seven-year-old Frank Folland (bourgeois: Augustus Noel Follin), his wife and his two Separated children in Cincinnati. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich
"By 1855, the California Gold Rush had ended. Lola had apparently got a taste for life on the edges of the gold mining community, and when she left California it was to head to Australia where another gold mining rush was in full swing. She took a young actor named Neil (or possibly Ned) Follin along as her manager and lover, and a company of young actors and dancers seeking adventure and excitement. They arrived in Sydney and opened a week later with a stage show called Lola Montez in Bavaria. After two weeks they left by boat for Melbourne. One story has it that as they were waiting to depart, a bailiff appeared at Lola’s cabin with a writ for her arrest due to an outstanding debt. She stripped naked and dared him to drag her out. He left empty handed. In Melbourne, they first performed their stage show and then, when audience numbers began to drop, Lola added the Spider Dance. It was an instant success, but the papers and critics hated it. One even tried to have the mayor of Melbourne issue a warrant for her arrest for public indecency, but he refused. She toured on through Adelaide and Ballarat, where she publicly horsewhipped an editor who wrote a critical article. Overall the Australian tour was a great success for Lola, albeit one with a tragic coda. As they returned to America, Follin (who Lola may have secretly married) fell overboard and was drowned in a tragic accident." (Headstuff)
Elias Peissner.
Lover in 1847.
" . . . [E]ven as she seduced him [Ludwig I], Lola was eyeing up other men. One of her main conquests was Elias 'Fritz' Peissner, a good-looking law student and fencing enthusiast who headed the Alemannia, a new fraternity at the University of Munich that opted to champion and protect the 'Spanish' dancer. x x x The king's failure to persuade his wife to meet Lola led the seductress to back away from him and instead seek the pleasures of Fritz Peissner, whose virginity she took, and of the other young men now known as 'Lola's Harem' of the 'Lolianer.' x x x It took a week for Munich to return to any degree of calm. Lola had meanwhile made her way to Blutenburg, a hunting lodge outside the city, where she reunited with Peissner and the rest of the Alemannen. Peissner chose this moment to accuse her of infidelity with Leibinger, earning him a predictable smack. x x x Frank Peissner accompanied Lola to Switzerland, but when she abandoned him and returned to England he made his way to the US, where he taught German and Latin at Union College in Schenectady. During the Civil War he was killed leading the 119th New York Infantry into action at the Battle of Chancellorsville." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"The very next day, a new man entered her life. On June 18, Lola met a handsome student, twenty-one-year-old Elias 'Fritz' Peissner, the son of a bureaucrat. In time, her relationship with Peissner would humiliate the king. But first she embarrassed Ludwig by insisting, as they embarked in their mini vacation, that they pay a call on Lieutenant Nussbammer, who was recuperating after a riding accident. It was an ill-starred holiday all around. At Bad Bruckenau, Ludwig's eldest son, Crown Prince Maximilian, refused to meet Lola, who pitched a fit, crying that it was no way to treat a countess-in-waiting." (Royal Romances: Titillating Tales of Passion and Power in the Palaces of Europe)
Francis Leigh.
Lover in 1846.
English military officer.
"By March 1846 she had a new lover, Francis Leigh, a blond Englishman who had resigned his commission in the Queen's Tenth Hussars in order to enjoy a more bohemian existence in Paris. During the summer, they travelled together as 'Mr and Mrs Leigh', visiting various resorts in Belgium and Germany, but she then ditched him in favour of Robert Peel, the wayward eldest son and namesake of the man who had been the British Prime Minister up until a few months earlier." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Luck came to her very soon, for she had scarcely arrived in the capital when she encountered a young Englishman, Mr. Francis Leigh, an ex-officer of the 10th Hussars. Within a week the two were on such intimate terms that they set up housekeeping together. But the harmony was shattered abruptly by Lola, who, in a jealous fit, one day fired a pistol at her "protector." As this was more than he could be expected to stand, Mr. Leigh, deciding that they could not continue living under the same roof, severed the relationship." (The Magnificent Montez)
" . . . If one theme runs through Lola's whole life, it is a longing for new adventures, new challenges, new faces, and new horizons; during the spring of 1846 she decided to abandon her life in Paris. She may have been encouraged to leave by her new lover, Francis Leigh, a young, blond Englishman who had served briefly as an officer in the Queen's Tenth Hussars before resigning his commission to amuse himself in Paris. Leigh was buying her the clothes she would need for the summer season because they planned to make a circuit of fashionable spas and resorts together. Along with her fashionable clothes, Lola packed her costumes and her music and made no plans to return. In June the railway opened from Paris to Brussels, and Lola and her lover may well have been among the first passengers, traveling as Mr. and Mrs. Leigh. They went on to Ostend, where the summer was hot and the sea was calm along the great, sandy North Sea beaches. Lola traveled in style with a number of trunks, including one filled with her capital, the jewels she had managed to accumulate from her gentlemen admirers. Also in the party were a chambermaid and Lola's dog. . . ." (Lola Montez: A Life: 93)
Franz Liszt.
Francis Leigh.
Lover in 1846.
English military officer.
"By March 1846 she had a new lover, Francis Leigh, a blond Englishman who had resigned his commission in the Queen's Tenth Hussars in order to enjoy a more bohemian existence in Paris. During the summer, they travelled together as 'Mr and Mrs Leigh', visiting various resorts in Belgium and Germany, but she then ditched him in favour of Robert Peel, the wayward eldest son and namesake of the man who had been the British Prime Minister up until a few months earlier." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"Luck came to her very soon, for she had scarcely arrived in the capital when she encountered a young Englishman, Mr. Francis Leigh, an ex-officer of the 10th Hussars. Within a week the two were on such intimate terms that they set up housekeeping together. But the harmony was shattered abruptly by Lola, who, in a jealous fit, one day fired a pistol at her "protector." As this was more than he could be expected to stand, Mr. Leigh, deciding that they could not continue living under the same roof, severed the relationship." (The Magnificent Montez)
" . . . If one theme runs through Lola's whole life, it is a longing for new adventures, new challenges, new faces, and new horizons; during the spring of 1846 she decided to abandon her life in Paris. She may have been encouraged to leave by her new lover, Francis Leigh, a young, blond Englishman who had served briefly as an officer in the Queen's Tenth Hussars before resigning his commission to amuse himself in Paris. Leigh was buying her the clothes she would need for the summer season because they planned to make a circuit of fashionable spas and resorts together. Along with her fashionable clothes, Lola packed her costumes and her music and made no plans to return. In June the railway opened from Paris to Brussels, and Lola and her lover may well have been among the first passengers, traveling as Mr. and Mrs. Leigh. They went on to Ostend, where the summer was hot and the sea was calm along the great, sandy North Sea beaches. Lola traveled in style with a number of trunks, including one filled with her capital, the jewels she had managed to accumulate from her gentlemen admirers. Also in the party were a chambermaid and Lola's dog. . . ." (Lola Montez: A Life: 93)
Franz Liszt.
Lover in 1844.
Hungarian composer.
"Then, en route to the Paris Opera -- a Mecca for all performers -- Lola met and managed to attach herself, limpet-like, to the celebrated composer Franz Liszt. Lola followed Liszt to Dresden where, according to him, they spent a passionate week together in a hotel room. But once again Lola disgraced herself. She got involved in a violent late-night fracas, and slapped the face of an Italian operatic tenor. Liszt had her locked in their hotel room, paid the hotel manager damages in advance for the destruction he knew she would cause -- and made good his escape." (Wild Irish Women: 272)
"Some years afterwards, one of his pupils, an American young woman, Amy Fay, took his measure in a book, Music-study in Germany: 'Liszt,' she wrote, 'is the most interesting and striking-looking man imaginable. Tall and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows and long iron-grey hair which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean expression when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of Jesuitical elegance and ease.'" (The Magnificent Montez: 183)
"In Dresden she began an affair with the pianist Franz Liszt, but he soon tired of her violent temper and quietly left, paying the hotel manager for the destruction he knew she would wreak when she found out." (Daily Mail)
Hungarian composer.
"Then, en route to the Paris Opera -- a Mecca for all performers -- Lola met and managed to attach herself, limpet-like, to the celebrated composer Franz Liszt. Lola followed Liszt to Dresden where, according to him, they spent a passionate week together in a hotel room. But once again Lola disgraced herself. She got involved in a violent late-night fracas, and slapped the face of an Italian operatic tenor. Liszt had her locked in their hotel room, paid the hotel manager damages in advance for the destruction he knew she would cause -- and made good his escape." (Wild Irish Women: 272)
"Some years afterwards, one of his pupils, an American young woman, Amy Fay, took his measure in a book, Music-study in Germany: 'Liszt,' she wrote, 'is the most interesting and striking-looking man imaginable. Tall and slight, with deep-set eyes, shaggy eyebrows and long iron-grey hair which he wears parted in the middle. His mouth turns up at the corners, which gives him a most crafty and Mephistophelean expression when he smiles, and his whole appearance and manner have a sort of Jesuitical elegance and ease.'" (The Magnificent Montez: 183)
"In Dresden she began an affair with the pianist Franz Liszt, but he soon tired of her violent temper and quietly left, paying the hotel manager for the destruction he knew she would wreak when she found out." (Daily Mail)
First Encounter: "...In 1844, she met and had an indiscreet affair with Franz Liszt, the Hungarian composer. When the affair died out, she decided to go to Paris." (Ozmore & Abernethy)
"Montez traveled firs to Germany, where she made the acquaintance of the famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The exact nature of their relationship is not totally clear, although sources indicate that it was very likely romantic. Either way, Liszt used his contacts in the theatrical and musical world of Paris to secure her a role in the opera there. Unfortunately, her Paris performance was a complete disaster, with one newspaper mockingly reporting that her beauty was “merely an initial advantage; it has to be justified with talent.'" (All That is Interesting)
Aftermath: "At last Liszt (who had a reputation as the great lover of the age) was so completely worn out by Lola, that as she slept, he locked her in their hotel room and fled. At the front desk he left a generous sum of money for the furniture he knew she would smash when she awoke." (Abacom)
"Lola was certainly eager to capture a husband of fame, stature and considerable wealth — her previous two marriages to Captain James and Captain Lenox had ended in tears and in court, respectively — while Franz undoubtedly wondered what all that fuzz about her two glandular protuberances was all about. On first meeting, Lola — who was delicately referred to as “La Grande Horizontale” in the English press — was said to possess a child-like charm that could easily melt lead. Yet, below this calm and inviting demeanor hid a fiery cauldron of seething temperament. She certainly would not hesitate to slash the face of any bothersome man with the whip she always carried, and if an unfortunate lover proved disappointing, she would eagerly reach for her pistol and make the poor fool run for his life. The affair between Lola and Franz surely burned at the temperature of nuclear fusion, yet correspondingly, was rather short lived. For one, Lola got jealous of all the attention Franz received from his female admirers. Concordantly, Liszt’s reputation as the greatest lover of his age was being severely tested by Lola’s persistence. One morning, while Lola slept, he locked her into their hotel room and fled. He even bribed a hotel porter to keep her secure for at least twelve hours, and left ample funds at the front desk to help pay for the impending bullet damage to furniture and inventory. Once released, Lola doggedly pursued Franz from town to town, eventually catching up with him in Bonn. . . ." (Interlude)
Friedrich Nussbammer.
"One day early in Lola's stay a twenty-six-year-old artillery second lieutenant, Friedrich Nussbammer, came to her assistance when she was being insulted by some Munichers; he was rewarded with an invitation to call on her. He soon became her favorite companion in her daily expeditions around the city. The rumor began to circulate that Ludwig intended to marry Lola to Nussbammer to regularize her status in Bavaria." (Lola Montez: A Life: 109)
"Montez traveled firs to Germany, where she made the acquaintance of the famous Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The exact nature of their relationship is not totally clear, although sources indicate that it was very likely romantic. Either way, Liszt used his contacts in the theatrical and musical world of Paris to secure her a role in the opera there. Unfortunately, her Paris performance was a complete disaster, with one newspaper mockingly reporting that her beauty was “merely an initial advantage; it has to be justified with talent.'" (All That is Interesting)
Aftermath: "At last Liszt (who had a reputation as the great lover of the age) was so completely worn out by Lola, that as she slept, he locked her in their hotel room and fled. At the front desk he left a generous sum of money for the furniture he knew she would smash when she awoke." (Abacom)
"Lola was certainly eager to capture a husband of fame, stature and considerable wealth — her previous two marriages to Captain James and Captain Lenox had ended in tears and in court, respectively — while Franz undoubtedly wondered what all that fuzz about her two glandular protuberances was all about. On first meeting, Lola — who was delicately referred to as “La Grande Horizontale” in the English press — was said to possess a child-like charm that could easily melt lead. Yet, below this calm and inviting demeanor hid a fiery cauldron of seething temperament. She certainly would not hesitate to slash the face of any bothersome man with the whip she always carried, and if an unfortunate lover proved disappointing, she would eagerly reach for her pistol and make the poor fool run for his life. The affair between Lola and Franz surely burned at the temperature of nuclear fusion, yet correspondingly, was rather short lived. For one, Lola got jealous of all the attention Franz received from his female admirers. Concordantly, Liszt’s reputation as the greatest lover of his age was being severely tested by Lola’s persistence. One morning, while Lola slept, he locked her into their hotel room and fled. He even bribed a hotel porter to keep her secure for at least twelve hours, and left ample funds at the front desk to help pay for the impending bullet damage to furniture and inventory. Once released, Lola doggedly pursued Franz from town to town, eventually catching up with him in Bonn. . . ." (Interlude)
Friedrich Nussbammer.
"One day early in Lola's stay a twenty-six-year-old artillery second lieutenant, Friedrich Nussbammer, came to her assistance when she was being insulted by some Munichers; he was rewarded with an invitation to call on her. He soon became her favorite companion in her daily expeditions around the city. The rumor began to circulate that Ludwig intended to marry Lola to Nussbammer to regularize her status in Bavaria." (Lola Montez: A Life: 109)
"One of the young men who had attached himself to Lola during her early days in Munich was Artillery Lieutenant Friedrich Nussbammer. Several people suspected that while she was greedily taking advantage of Ludwig, tantalizing, yet denying him her body, she was bestowing it elsewhere, and Nussbammer was the likely candidate. Two nights running Lola came looking for the lieutenant at his residence, ringing every doorbell and awakening all the tenants. On the second night, she was told to cease and desist by Nussbammer's landlady. The woman shouted, 'I'm not deaf, Miss,' and Lola retorted, 'I'm not 'Miss,' but the King's mistress.'" (Royal Romances)
" . . . Ludwig now questioned Lola about the intimated lovers. Her furious denials left him in no doubt as to her fidelity. Always the supreme liar, Lola had no scruple in concealing her passionate involvement with a handsome lieutenant called Friedrich Nussbammer. He paid dearly for his adventure; eventually banished, his disgrace and shame led to insanity." (Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction, Power and Ambition)
 |
| Heinrich von Maltzahn |
Baron of Wartenberg and Penzlin
"Back at the hotel she ran into one of the few Bavarians she knew, Heinrich Baron von Maltzahn, a fifty-three-year-old playboy of some renown who had residences in Baden-Baden and on the rue de la Madelaine in Paris, where Lola had known him. Maltzahn did not spend much time in Bavaria; he had married well three times and succeeded in being widowed each time, which had left him with enough money to indulge his tastes in environments less morally stringent that his native country. By a happy coincidence for Lola, Maltzahn was making a rare visit to Munich to enter his elder son at the university and was also staying at the Bayerischer Hof. Ludwig like Maltzahn and had appointed him long ago to the honorary position of chamberlain, although they had rarely seen each other in recent years because of the baron's expatriate life. Lola must have recognized Maltzahn as a way to circumvent Frays and he almost certainly wrote her a letter of introduction to Ludwig so that she could obtain a private audience with the king." (Lola Montez: A Life: 102)
Ludwig Leibinger.
Lover in 1848.
Lover in 1848.
" . . . Another quarrel ensued and Ludwig retreated, both physically and emotionally, Lola recklessly added another lover to her collection, a student named Leibinger." (Royal Romances)
"When he learnt that the Alemannia students had inadvertently knocked Lola out on a chandelier while carrying her shoulder-high during a raucous, trouser-less, late-night party, the king must have empathised with his queen, who was by now refusing to meet anyone who belonged to Lola's circle. However, Ludwig was in for much more of a shock when he was informed that the Countess of Landsfeld was sleeping with Fritz Peissner. His distress would have been multiplied if he knew, as Peissner now did, that she was also making love to another student, Ludwig Leibinger." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"February 12, 1848: In the early morning, Ludwig I. moves with Franz von Berks, a member of the Council of State, to Grosshesselohe. But he does not meet her there anymore. Soon after, two policemen in the Blutenburg, who were commissioned by Berks, to bring Lola Montez to Lindau. First, she tears the order angrily, but then she lets the officers and the Alemanni Elias Peißner, Ludwig Leibinger and Jacob Härtreiß take them in a carriage to the train station in Pasing and take the train to Lindau. From there, Lola Montez is to travel to Switzerland. While waiting in Lindau for her luggage from Munich - and now sleeps with Ludwig Leibinger instead of Elias Peißner -, she receives a letter from the king, in which he complains that she spent the night in Blutenburg with his rival. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich"
Marius Petipa.
Sam Brannan. (1819-1889)
Lover in 1853
"When he learnt that the Alemannia students had inadvertently knocked Lola out on a chandelier while carrying her shoulder-high during a raucous, trouser-less, late-night party, the king must have empathised with his queen, who was by now refusing to meet anyone who belonged to Lola's circle. However, Ludwig was in for much more of a shock when he was informed that the Countess of Landsfeld was sleeping with Fritz Peissner. His distress would have been multiplied if he knew, as Peissner now did, that she was also making love to another student, Ludwig Leibinger." (1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery)
"February 12, 1848: In the early morning, Ludwig I. moves with Franz von Berks, a member of the Council of State, to Grosshesselohe. But he does not meet her there anymore. Soon after, two policemen in the Blutenburg, who were commissioned by Berks, to bring Lola Montez to Lindau. First, she tears the order angrily, but then she lets the officers and the Alemanni Elias Peißner, Ludwig Leibinger and Jacob Härtreiß take them in a carriage to the train station in Pasing and take the train to Lindau. From there, Lola Montez is to travel to Switzerland. While waiting in Lindau for her luggage from Munich - and now sleeps with Ludwig Leibinger instead of Elias Peißner -, she receives a letter from the king, in which he complains that she spent the night in Blutenburg with his rival. Quelle: https://www.dieterwunderlich.de/Lola_Montez.htm (c) Dieter Wunderlich"
Marius Petipa.
 |
| Sam Brannan @Napa Valley Register |
Lover in 1853
"The leader of a Mormon colony when he first came to California, Brannan doubled or tripled the population of San Francisco when he arrived in 1846 on the ship Brooklyn with 238 Saints. He was disappointed to discover that the United States had taken possession of his promised land as a result of the Mexican War, but he adjusted. Since he'd intended to start a self-sufficient colony anyway, he and his people jump-started the local economy with their skills as carpenters, blacksmiths, farmers, bakers and everything a community might need. He also brought a printing press and published San Francisco's first newspaper, the Alta California, wielding such political clout as he could. He was the man who brought news of the discovery of gold to the city, walking down the main streets with samples in his hand as he yelled, "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" He opened stores in all the most likely places, and partnered with John Sutter, also selling off much of the latter's Sacramento real estate. He assisted the Vigilantes in ending crime in the city after the great influx, and he proved to be a stubborn, fearless man of a generous nature. When Brigham Young sought to bring him to heal and demanded money he thought the Mormon Church was owed, Brannan refused. According to some accounts, several assassination teams were sent after Brannan, but they all seemed to disappear along the way; after a time, no one was interested in trying to bring him to church justice anymore. California's first millionaire, Brannan lived well and lavishly, drinking and womanizing freely. He developed Calistoga as a resort--he got a train built through the Napa Valley to get there--and despite later assertions that the elite of San Francisco visited, it was in fact the male elite who stayed, often with their mistresses. Brannan's own freewheeling ways discouraged the more genteel, who were less enamored of loose women and high-stakes gambling. The famous courtesan Lola Montez became one of his paramours, and his wife eventually divorced him, claiming half of his illiquid wealth. Having to sell his holdings precipitously left him much the poorer, and his free-spending habits soon left him bankrupt. He ended his days living in a hut near San Diego, where he was buried in a pauper's grave; but even at the end he still showed the same undaunted spirit that made him San Francisco's first great citizen and promoter." (Wine Merchant)
"Eventually, Brannan did recover from his wounds, although one bullet caused partial paralysis. And at about that time, his life began to unravel. His propensity for excessive spending and beautiful women - especially dancer Lola Montez - led to his ruin. His wife, Ann Eliza, filed for divorce. In 1870, the courts granted the divorce and awarded her half of Brannan's assets. His children also severed relations with Brannan." (Napa Valley Register)
"After a less than peaceful theater tour in the U.S. (Lola horsewhipped one theater manager when he criticized her performance) she set off by steamer from New Orleans, bound for California. Another passenger, San Francisco newspaper publisher and civic leader Sam Brannan, paid his romantic attentions to his glamorous shipmate. In May of 1853 Lola Montez arrived in San Francisco and was an immediately success." (Sierra County Gold)
"Gold tycoons gained the Midas touch. They switched from raw whiskey and flannel shirts to champagne and diamond-studded wardrobes. Sam Brannan was courting the European actress, Lola Montez, in finer style than her Bavarian king. He had an income of one thousand dollars a day. He owned railroads, vineyards, ranches and mines; his domain included one hundred seventy thousand acres where present day Los Angeles County lies. He was peddling pencils when he died." (The Californian)
"In the OTL a business partner invites Sam out to Boston to visit his family. Originally Sam goes, leaving his wife and new child at home. After arriving in Boston, he proceeds to New York doing more business deals before heading home, on his way home, he meets a notorious singer and cortisone "Lola Mentez". Sam's trip out east lasts nearly Five months till he returns in mid May of 1853. Even after his return, he continues to see "Lola" and has an affair with for years to come spending a small fortune on her. However, here Samuel makes his first big choice. IN this timeline, with Sams wife still recovering from birth, a weak newborn Son as well as business at home, Sam decides to stay home to spend more time with his newborn son, pledging to go back east to New York next year. While this may seem a radical departure from the OTL, in truth Sam did little during his five months away aside from meet with a banker in New York who persuaded him to purchase property that was never developed. By staying home, Sam precedes to avoid getting involved, not just with Lola and a torrid affair, but avoids meeting his brother as well; a man as much an alcoholic and misogynist as Sam (used) to be. While Lola Mentez will still arrive in mid 1853, by that time Sam will have littler interest in chasing after her; having spent the past five months with his wife and kids and developing business within San Francisco." (Alternate History)
"However while Brannan finically does not need much involvement, Brannan as a person was an atrocious mess. The man was a drunk and a womanizer, he routinely would leave his wife and kids along for months at a time on business trips and return home only to ignore them even more. His wife, genteel and very refined women, considered Brannan a crude and abusive man who cared only for money. By as early as 1853, Samuel Brannan was frequently visiting brothers and having an affair with a notorious dance named 'Lola Montez'." (Alternate History)
Savile Morton.
Journalist
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