How Do You Solve A Problem Like Camilla? - The Life of the Duchess of Cornwall

She's been called 'The Rottweiler.' Princess Diana famously declared on television that 'there were three of us in this marriage, so it was quite crowded." Prince Charles once declared in a private phone conversation that was heard around the world that her greatest mission in life as been 'to love him' She's been reviled as a homewrecker, pelted with bread rolls, the woman who ruined the fairytale marriage of the century. Was it fate that brought her and Prince Charles together? Who is Camilla Parker Bowles, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall? What is it about this earthy, chain-smoking dame that has enthralled the Prince of Wales for almost forty years?

She was born Camilla Rosemary Shand sixty one years ago today on July 17, 1947, making her a Cancer like her rival Princess Diana. As everyone now knows, her great grandmother was Alice, Mrs. George Keppel, mistress of Edward VII. Contrary to the myth, Camilla did not announce to Prince Charles when they first met that her great-grandmother and his great grandfather got it on, so how about it? Her mother Rosemary was the eldest daughter of Alice's daughter Sonia and Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. Her father Major Bruce Shand was the son of Philip Morton Shand, an architectural writer and critic who was a close friend of architects Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. Shand graduated from Sandhurts and was commissioned in the 12th Lancers. He served heroically during World War II, where he was captured and taken to Greece as a prisoner of War, later being transferred to Spangenberg. One could almost say that it was inevitable that Camilla and Charles should meet and fall in love. Not only is Camilla descended from Charles II's mistress, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, but also Arnold Joost van Keppel, particular favorite of William III.


Camilla spent her early youth in Plumpton in East Sussex, across from the racecourse, before the family moved to Dorset. Her father Bruce worked in London for several wine merchants before later becoming Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex. She is extremely close to her younger brother and sister, Annabel Elliott and Mark Shand as well as to her late parents. Camilla attended Queen's Gate school, a tony girls boarding school in South Kensington, whose alumnae included Lynn Redgrave. Queen's Gate was an old fashioned school that prepared the girls for marriage and motherhood as opposed to higher education. Most of the graduates went on to finishing schools or secretarial college until they made a good marriage. 'Milla' as she was known then was even at a young age, a boy magnet. While not as pretty as some of the other girls, she exuded an earthy sexuality that attracted the boys like bees to honey. According to her fellow classmates, she was always a 'man's woman' able to converse with them on the subjects that mattered like sports, fishing, hunting. She exuded confidence, loved to flirt and liked men a great deal.

According to her friends, Camilla reveled in her illustrous ancestor's royal connection (apparently Prince Charles is equally fascinated. He has been on a mission to buy Camilla pieces of jewelry once owned by Alice Keppel, perhaps given to her by Edward VII). She never shied away from talking about Alice Keppel (what she thought about her Scandalous great Aunt Violet Trefusis is unknown). "My great grandmother was lover of the king," she allegedly boasted. "We're practically royalty." (Andersen, page 67). Like Camilla, Alice Keppel was not a great beauty. While she had chestnut hair, blue eyes, and a lush figure, it was her husband George Keppel who was considered the beauty in the family. Sir Harold Acton remarked that one could easily see Keppel waltzing to the Merry Widow waltz. Apparently he inherited the beaux yeux of his ancestor Arnold Joost van Keppel (the current Earl of Albemarle has them as well.) What she did have, and what Camilla seems to have in spades, is an even-tempered personality, the 'gift for happiness' that her daughter Violet wrote about.


Camilla left school after achieving only one 'O' level. After a year at finishing school, Camilla made her London debut as a debutante. She also inherited $1.5MM from a relative. Still, even though, she didn't need the money, Camilla joined the workforce, taking a job at the tony decorating firm of Colefax & Fowler. Moving into a flat, she shared it with friends who went on to marry well, one flatmate even married Camilla's uncle, Lord Ashcombe! Camilla was noted by her friends for being a total slob, she would come home from work and drop her clothes on the floor, leaving a trail to her bedroom. Even later in life when she had servants, her house still looked like more like nouveau pauvre than nouveau riche.


She joined the social swirl of the swinging sixties, spending time at private clubs such as Annabels, owned by Mark Birley, the former husband of Lady Annabel Goldsmith. More than her city life, Camilla loved the country, and all manner of country pursuits including hunting.
She made her debut with a party for 150 guests in 1965. Soon after she met Kevin Burke, the man to whom she lost her virginity. This is significant because it immediately took her out of the running as a potential Princess of Wales. Despite the fact that it was the 'swinging sixties', a future Princess of Wales was still expected to be pristine before her marriage.



In 1966, she met Andrew Park Bowles, her future husband. Like her, Andrew came from a well connected and aristocratic family from Berkshire. His father, Derek, was a great-grandson of the 6th Earl of Macclesfield, and his mother, Anna was the daughter of millionaire Sir Humphrey de Trafford. Twenty-seven at the time they met, he was educated at Sandhurst and was a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Royal Horse Guard. Camilla was instantly smitten with Parker-Bowles camera ready good-looks. On his side, despite the many beautiful woman he squired, there was something about the earthy, bawdy Camilla that intrigued him. For seven years they had an on-again, off-again relationship. From the beginning, Andrew Parker-Bowles was not faithful. "Andrew behaved abominably to Camilla," a friend Lady Caroline Percy said, "But she was desperate to marry him." He had many girlfriends, including at one point, Princess Anne who he squired for a time in 1970. There were even rumors that Princess Anne wanted to marry Parker Bowles. It was this relationship that inadvertantly led to the defining relationship of her life, the Prince of Wales.

The Prince and his future Dutchess met appropriately enough on the polo fields near Windsor Castle in August of 1971. Camilla complimented him on his mount and his prowess on the playing field. They chatted briefly that day but people noticed how at ease they were in each other's company. A few weeks later, one of the Prince's former flames Lucia Santa Cruz, told Prince Charles that she had met the perfect girl for him and introduced him formally to Camilla. For the rest of the evening they were glued to each other's side, echoes of the first meeting of an earlier Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and Alice Keppel.


Although the Prince had met and dated many beautiful women by this time, he was intrigued by Camilla's down to earth manner, and ease. She didn't seem awed by his presence which was a breath of fresh air for him. Camilla even wondered if perhaps she might be the reincarnation of her great-grandmother. "Strange, but I never felt intimidated in his presence, never," she explained to a friend, "I felt from the beginning that we were two peas in a pod. We talked as if we had always known each other." (Andersen, page 70).


Prince Charles had had a lonely childhood. As a small child, his mother once went off on a six month tour of the current and former British colonies, leaving him alone with nannies. He was required to curtsey to his mother. Sensitive and shy, at school he was bullied by the other children. Sent to Gordonstaun, Prince Philip's alma mater, to toughen him up, he instead felt like it was a prison sentence. When he arrived at Cambridge, he had very few close friends. The one person that he could talk to or count on was his great-uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Earl of Burma, First Sea Lord and the last Viceroy of India. He would spend weekends at his great-uncle's estate Broadlands, where his uncle would introduce him to suitable women, including his own granddaughter Amanda Knatchbull. His great-uncle was the father that Prince Charles would have liked to have. He even gave his seal of approval to the relationship by allowing Charles to use Broadlands for weekends with Camilla. Meanwhile Camilla was the motherly figure that the Queen could never be. That wasn't all that she gave him. Apparently lessons in love-making were also on the cards. According to Tina Brown's biography of Princess Diana, Charles was not a good lover at this time. Camilla helped him to become more relaxed about sex.


The relationship was put on hold when Prince Charles shipped out in early 1973 as part of his duties in the Royal Navy. He had also apparently decided that he wouldn't be getting married before he turned 30, which was not part of Camilla's plans. While he told her that he loved her before he shipped out, he made no commitments. Although they wrote to each other, the Prince pouring his heart out to her, Camilla became engaged to Andrew Parker-Bowles and married him on July 4th 1973 in front of 800 guests. At this point in time, while Camilla was fond of the Prince, it was Andrew that she loved.

Prince Charles was devastated by the news. There were even rumors that he was so distraught over the marriage that he didn't attend, when the reality he was that he'd had a prior engagement in his calendar for months. Over the next several years, he dated a slew of eligible females, both suitable and unsuitable, he also started a relationship with a woman named Jane Jenkins who lived in Canada. But none of them were prepared to be the Princess of Wales, not even Diana's elder sister Sarah, who the Prince dated briefly. He even proposed to his cousin Amanda Knatchbull, who turned him down. And there was Dale, Lady Tryon, a jolly bouncy Australian nicknamed Kanga, who also had a rather motherly relationship with Charles as well as being his lover. Still, he couldn't forget Camilla. It was the death of his great-uncle that brought Camilla back into the Prince's life. He was absolutely shattered. Despite the fact that she was married now, with two children Tom and Laura, Camilla soon took up her old role as the Prince's confidante.

Soon they were seen together all over the place. It was the beginning of their 'second' affair. At the Queen Mother's 80th birthday party, they danced together all night, leading Charle's girlfriend at the time, Anna 'Whiplash' Wallace to cause a scene. "Don't you ever, ever ignore me like that again! No one treats me like that, not even you." At one ball, they were seen making out on the dance floor, leading Andrew Parker-Bowles to comment that "HRH is very fond of my wife, and she appears fond of him." Parker-Bowles had his own extra-marital dalliances so it wasn't as if he could throw stones.

In a strange twist of fate, it was also the death of his great-uncle that led to his relationship with Diana. When they met again, she was terribly sympathetic to the pain he had gone through. She seemed like the perfect girl. Sweet, and more importantly totally innocent. While she had a few boyfriends, she had been "keeping herself neat and tidy for what lay ahead."

Ironically it was Camilla who encouraged Prince Charle's relationship with Lady Diana Spencer, mistakenly thinking that she would be a malleable presence in the Prince's life. It was a mistake that she would learn to regret. Still, in the initial days of the Prince's relationship with Diana, Camilla tried to befriend her. Her former brother-in-law, Richard Parker Bowles told Tina Brown that "she initially encouraged the relationship between Charles and Diana because she thought Diana was gormless. She never saw Diana as a threat, she thought that Diana was someone she could manipulate." At the time, she was more threatened by Charle's relationship with Kanga Tryon than she was by Diana.



Diana, however, was not that stupid and quickly sussed out that Camilla had ulterior motives, although it took awhile before she realized the real role that Camilla played in Prince Charles's life. After her wedding, Diana found a pair of cufflinks that Camilla had given Prince Charles with the initials C. Allegedly Prince Charles valet, Stephan Barry who was jealous of Diana, put the cufflinks out so that Diana could see them. But even before the wedding, Diana was suspicious. There was the story in the paper about Prince Charles and a blonde woman on the Royal Train before the engagement. Diana always said that it wasn't her on the train. Was it perhaps Camilla? Than there was the gift of a bracelet that Charles gave Camilla with the card from Fred to Gladys (their pet names for each other). He told Diana that it was just a gift from one friend to another, but Diana didn't believe him. She also found photographs of the two of them together in a book. Diana was so jealous that although she could do nothing about Camilla being invited to the wedding, she made sure that she was not invited to the reception afterwards.

It is unclear exactly when Prince Charles and Camilla renewed their sexual relationship. In his famous interview with Jonathan Dimbley, Prince Charles stated that their relationship was platonic until his marriage had 'irretrievably broken down' which some authors point as to around 1987. Other states that Prince Charles and Camilla renewed their relationship even soon, perhaps as early as 1983 or 1984. Whenever it was, it soon became clear that the Prince and Princess of Wales were fundamentally incompatible. Despite their age difference, they had little in common. Prince Charles preferred country pursuits, Diana the city, Charles liked opera, blood sports and his establishment friends, Diana loved pop stars and glamour. The only things they did have in common were feeling damaged from their childhoods, raging insecurities, and an interest in alternative medicine and therapy. The more popular Diana became, the worse their marriage. Prince Charles wasn't used to be overshadowed, and Diana did nothing really to reassure him, just he did not to reassure her that she was doing a good job. The emotional hole they both suffered from couldn't be filled by the other.

The pair were soon trysting secretly at the homes of their friends. Prince Charles effectively moved to his country house at Highgrove, while Diana remained at Kensington Palace in London. For awhile it seemed everyone was living some kind of French farce. The Parker-Bowles had moved from Bolehyde Manor to Middlewick which was conveniently located 15 minutes from Highgrove. Camilla would serve as hostess for Charles at Highgrove, but all traces of her would have to be removed before Diana arrived at the weekend. Even when Diana did deign to spend time at Highgrove, Prince Charles would sneak out and tryst with his lover in the bushes, leaving his valet having to come up with creative ways to remove grass stains.

At the 40th birthday party for Camilla's sister Annabel Elliott, Diana confronted her rival, telling her that she knew what was going on. Ugly rows ensued between the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Prince once told the Princess angrily that he would not be the only Prince of Wales to not have a mistress! Unlike Princess Alexandra, Diana was not about to sit by and allow another woman to steal her husband. She tried vainly to rekindle whatever spark had been between her and the Prince in the beginning. Soon she gave up and turned to her own extramarital affairs including James Hewitt and possibly Barry Manakee, her protection officer. While the Prince was dallying with Camilla, Andrew Parker-Bowles had his own extramarital dalliances (shades of George Keppel). The first hint that the public learned of their relationship was when Charles and Camilla took a painting holiday together in Italy without their spouses. Then there were the revelations in Andrew Morton's book: Diana, Her True Story (written with the full cooperation of the Princess).


Things would probably have gone on as they had been for years if it hadn't been for the release of the Camillagate tapes. The breathless declarations of Prince Charles wishing that he could be Camilla's tampon, plus the lover's sex talk of needing each other several times a day, which were recorded on prehistoric mobile phones in 1989 and published first in Australia in the early party of 1993, both titillated and repulsed the nation. Suspicion on who taped the Prince and his mistress fell at first on the Security Services, but it was probably a amateur ham radio operator who recorded the calls. Once Andrew Parker-Bowles became known as the most famous cuckold in history, it was only a matter of time before the two divorced after 22 years of marriage.


Meanwhile, the Queen had had enough, after Diana gave her famous interview to Martin Bashir, she urged the couple to divorce, paving the way for Prince Charles and Camilla to finally go public with their relationship. In 1996, Prince Charles hired Mark Bolland to rehabilitate Camilla's image, a slow process that started with Camilla visiting the US on behalf of the National Osteoprosis Foundation. In July of 1997, Prince Charles even felt comfortable throwing a 50th birthday party for his love at Highgrove. Then in August of 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash with her new lover Dod al-Fayed. Overnight, the tide turned against Prince Charles and particularly against Camilla. She was literally trapped in her home. If she dared to venture out to do some shopping, she was pelted with bread rolls or cursed at. The harrassment got so bad, that Prince Charles had a protection officer assigned to her. Any hope that they had of the nation finally accepting their relationship seemed to have ended.



And there were other obstacles as well. The Queen asked Prince Charles to publicly make a statement that he was giving up his relationship with Camilla. Charles refused, as far as he was concerned, Camilla was non-negotiable. In the spring of 1998, he even took the first step of finally introducing Camilla to Prince William. Camilla, of course, was understandably nervous. However, the meeting seemed to go well, although she did ask for a large Vodka tonic afterwards. The next step, at least as far as Camilla was concerned was to get rid of Tiggy Legg-Bourke, the nanny to the young princes. It was the one thing that Camilla and Diana had in common, their suspicion that the young woman was more than just a nanny to the boys. In Diana's case, it was her jealously of her boys having a surrogate mother. For Camilla, it was the idea that she might be replaced with a younger, prettier, more acceptable model.


Another obstacle, besides public opinion, was the Queen Mother. Her grandson's relationship with Camilla was a little too reminiscent of the Duke of Windsor's with Wallis Warfield Simpson. The former Edward VIII put love before duty to the nation, leaving his younger brother ill-prepared for his role as King. The strain of the job, and the second World War sent the king to an early grave, or so it seemed to his widow. Bertie and Elizabeth had given up their dream of a normal life to take on the role of King and Queen, despite their personal feelings. The Queen Mum was appalled that her grandson, not to mention the late Princess had put their own feelings before their duty to the crown. She refused to meet Camilla or even to have her name mentioned in her prescence. As long as she was alive, Prince Charles would never have taken the chance at losing his grandmother's respect by marrying Camilla. The Queen followed suit.


It was not until the Queen Mum's death at the age of 101 in 2002, that relations between the House of Windsor and Camilla began to thaw. Camilla slowly began to appear in public again. At first, the photo ops were carefully staged, Camilla and Charles sharing a kiss on the cheek, Camilla and Charles taking a trip to Italy together, Camilla being invited to the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Queen's coronation, attending a pop concert at Wembley stadium with the family (albeit seated 2 rows behind). She even managed to get along with William and Harry, becoming their friend, and not trying to step in as a mother substitute.


Finally after years of speculation, the Palace announced in February of 2005 that the Prince and Camilla Parker Bowles would be married in April of 2005. What finally provoked the Prince to pop the question. The wedding of Edward van Cutsem to Lady Tamara Grosvenor. While both Prince Charles and Camilla were invited, they were not going to be seated together. The Prince was tired of not having Camilla treated as his companion, the woman in his life. He declined to attend the wedding. The time had come to make Camilla his wife. There was a sense of relief in the establishment that the thing was finally going to be done. It cleared up Camilla's rather ambiguous role in the Prince's life, (they were already living together at Clarence House and at Highgrove although Camilla also maintained for awhile her own country house) and there was also the matter that the Prince was supporting her to the tune of $250,000 year for clothes, grooming, botox protection officers, some of which came from tax-payer money. Camilla had her teeth whitened to the tune of $10,000 (it costs a lot to get rid of those tobacco stains!), botox to smooth her wrinkles and fine lines, chemical peels, her hair professionally dyed (Camilla, like Diana, was more of a mousy blonde), designer clothes replaced her mumsy outfits, all befitting her new role as consort to the Prince. She even took over the redecorating of Clarence House after the Queen Mum's death, although Charles paid for the changes to her suite out of his own pocket, costing him around $2MM.

The announcement that Camilla would be known not as the Princess of Wales, which automatically became her title on her marriage to Prince Charles but as HRH The Duchess of Cornwall did a great to deal to make the idea of the marriage palatable to the general public. Still there were many people who were not happy about the marriage, including several prominent clergymen. But the general public at large seemed finally to accept that this was the woman the Prince loved and wanted to share the rest of his life with. The approval of the two Princes also went along way to smoothing things over. Once again, the Prince declined to have his future wife sign a pre-nuptial agreement, preferring to go on faith that the marriage will last. He also set up a $20MM trust fund for Camilla, which gives her an income of $600,000 a year. In the event of her death, the money returns to the Prince's family.

The wedding took place on Saturday April 9, 2005 (postponed by a day so that the Prince could attend Pope John Paul II's funeral) at the registry office in Windsor, followed by a blessing at St. George's Chapel Windsor. The press speculation leading up the wedding made it appear as if the whole thing were falling apart, the Daily Mail being the most awful in their press coverage. Instead the wedding went off without a hitch, although for a moment it looked as if Camilla's headdress would blow off her head. During the blessing the Prince and his new bride were obliged to read an act of contrition as it were for their previous behavior. While the Queen didn't attend the civil ceremony, she was at the blessing and gave a gracious toast to the newlyweds at the reception.

Although it can be hard to get past the fact that their relationship caused a great deal of pain to a lot of people, least of all themselves, one can't help admiring the fact that after almost forty years, they still love one another and they make each other happy. While she may not have the movie star good looks or the common touch that Diana possessed, Camilla has proven to be a hard working member of the Royal family undertaking hundreds of engagements a year. Everyone who comes into contact with her remarks upon her warmth, her wit, and her compassion. She also doesn't overshadow the Prince. Like Prince Philip, she knows her place is to support Prince Charles. It is easy to speculate on what might have been if Charles and Camilla had married when they first fell in love, but they didn't. There would be no William or Harry, no Tom and Laura Parker Bowles.


Comparisons have been made between Camilla and the Duchess of Windsor. While Wallis Simpson was denied the honor of HRH, Camilla was given the title by the Queen. The differences come down to the fact that while Wallis was a twice divorced American who seemed grasping, and ambitious, Camilla came from the British aristocracy, one of "them" so to speak and she never sought to be the wife of the Prince of Wales. She was content to love the Prince behind the scenes as it were, while it was Prince Charles who was more adamant that Camilla be accepted.

Will Camilla ever be Queen? More to the point will Charles ever become King? He turns 60 this year, and the Queen at 82 shows no signs of slowing down or turning over the reigns to her son. It is entirely possible that if the monarchy survives that either Charles will become King when he is elderly and who will care at that point if Camilla is Queen. Any rate, as his wife, she automatically becomes Queen.


Sources include:
Charles and Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair - Gyles Brandreth
After Diana: William, Harry, Charles and the Royal House of Windsor - Christopher Andersen
The Diana Chronicles - Tina Brown
Diana: Her True Story - Andrew Morton
The Firm - Penny Junor
The Windsor Knot - Christopher Wilson
Royal Affairs - Leslie Carroll
Sex with Kings: Eleanor Herman

Napoleon Week on Scandalous Women

It is Napoleon Week here on Scandalous Women focusing on three women in the Emperor's life; his sister Pauline, his mistress Marie Walewska, and his sister Elizabeth Patterson. Anyone who leaves a comment on either post will be eligible to win a copy of Cupid and the King by Princess Michael of Kent.

The winner will be announced on May 23rd, 2008.

The Harlot and the Statesman- The Love Story of Elizabeth Armistead and Charles James Fox

"You are ALL to me. You can always make me happy in circumstances apparently unpleasant and miserable... Indeed my dearest angel, the whole happiness of my life depends on you." Charles James Fox to the courtesan Elizabeth Armistead on 7 May 1785.

Imagine you are a politician of some renown, in fact some consider you to be one of the greatest politicians ever in English history, you come from an aristocratic family descended from Charles II. Now imagine that you fall madly in love with a woman who has been the mistress of several titled gentlemen, so much in love that you do the unthinkable, and you secretly marry her. Sounds like historical romance doesn't it?


Well, in this case the story is real. Charles James Fox, aristocratic man about town, Whig politician and one of the most brilliant and charismatic men of his day, and Elizabeth Armistead, is one of the greatest love stories of the eighteenth century, if not ever. In some ways, it was inevitable that Charles James Fox, or CJF as I like to call him, would fall madly in love. His family's romantic history alone is littered with people falling in love with what society would consider inappropriate people and living happily ever after.


His own mother, Lady Caroline Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, married Henry Fox, Lord Holland against her parents wishes. Henry Fox was 18 years older than Lady Caroline, and had alreaady run through one fortune. The couple eloped when Caroline was 21, and lived happily together until Lord Holland's death.


The Duke and his Duchess had been an arranged marriage and had fallen in love, so naturally they reserved the right to make brilliant matches for their children. After all it worked for them. In fact the story of the Duke and Duchess of Richmond is another wonderful love story. The Duke, a grandson of Charles II through his mistress, Louise de Keroualle, had married Lady Sarah Cadogan when she was thirteen and he was eighteen. The marriage had been arranged by their parents to settle the gambling debts of his father. Apparently the newly married couple disliked each other on first sight. Soon after the marriage, the Duke took off for the continent. When he returned three years, he attended an evening at the theater, where he saw a beautiful woman in a box surrounded by admirers. When he inquired who it was, he was informed that it was his wife! This time he wooed her properly and they fell deeply in love. The couple were known for being very affectionate with each other, which was not the norm in aristocratic marriages.

Lady Caroline's sister, Emily, the Duchess of Leinster, remarried her children's tutor, William Ogilivie after her husband's death. And the younger sister, Sarah, after surviving not just the disappointment of being rejected by George III as a bride, but having her first marriage end in divorce, found happiness married to an impoverished soldier, George Napier. With the examples of his mother and his aunts, is it any wonder that when Charles James Fox finally fell deeply in love, there would be nothing to stop him from finally making 'his Liz' his lawful wife?


At the time that Elizabeth and Charles James Fox became reacquainted, she was thirty-three and CJF was thirty-four. Elizabeth had spent the past ten years as one of the most famous courtesans in London. She had appeared upon the stage for a short-time (as most courtesans did at one time or another) before deciding there was more profit to be had from the life of a Cyprian. She had caught the eye of the Prince of Wales after his affair with Mary Robinson, but discovered that Prince was not a good bet since he had a hard time paying his own bills, let alone hers. She moved on to others, finally securing two annuities for her favors. Elizabeth's string of fashionable and aristocratic lovers included two dukes, an earl, a viscount as well as the aforementioned Prince of Wales when she became reacquainted with Charles James Fox. They had mutual friends in common in Whig Society. Charles James Fox had recently ended an affair with Mary Robinson, and Elizabeth had been the mistress of several of his friends (London society was small and notoriously incestuous, everyone was either related to, having affairs with, or married to each other).


She was born Elizabeth Bridget Cane on July 11, 1750. No one is sure if there was a Mr. Armistead or not. It could be that she took the name to spare her family from finding out about her life in London but more than likely he was an early protector of hers. No one knows quite how Elizabeth Armistead came to be 'on the game' as they called it. It wasn't unusual for a girl to be seduced and than abandoned, leaving her no choice but to turn to a life of prositution. The newest neighborhood for the high class brothels of the era or 'nunneries' as they were called was around St. James. It is possible that Elizabeth started her career in one of the brothels before being set up in her own establishment by a protector which was the goal of most women (far better to service one man than several). In a courtesan's lifetime, she might have been kept at various times by several men, either singularly, or at the same time.


Charles James Fox, was a rising star in the Whig party, and a close friend of the Duchess of Devonshire and the Prince of Wales. While his reputation is not what it once was compared to his rival Pitt, Fox was still one of the most beloved politicians in the late 18th and 19th Century. He was born on January 24, 1749, the second surviving son of Henry Fox and Lady Caroline. His parents spoiled him immensely, particularly his father, who indulged him. 'Let nothing be done to break his spirit,' he used to say, 'the world will do that soon enough.' Fox was a child prodigy, who at Eton and Oxford devoured books the way he devoured food. He could read in Greek, French, Latin, Italian, as well as English, and had a passion for mathematics of all things.


His father contributed to his dissipation by taking him off to the continent and introducing him to all manner of vices, including gambling. He was first elected to parliament in 1768 at the tender age of 19 which he was technically ineligible to be a member. Fox was a staunch adversary of George III, he supported the colonists during the American Revolution, dressing in the colors of Washington's army in Parliament. He served briefly as Britain's first Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1782, before the fall of North's government and the election of William Pitt, the Younger, as Britain's youngest Prime Minister.

His private life was notorious in an age of licentiousness. He was famed for his drinking and gambling. Although he was very good at card games, what got CJF into trouble were the betting books at his club. They would be on sometimes the most nonsensical things like how long it would take for a drop of rain to make down a window pane, or more serious bets such as how long Lord North would be First Lord of the Treasury. Between 1772 and 1774, his father, Lord Holland had to pay off 120,000 pounds of Charles James's debts, the equivalent today of $11 million dollars! Fox twice went bankrupt in 1781 and 1784 (at one point during their time together, Elizabeth sold her annuities to pay their debts). Although he could best be described as dark, fat, and hairy, he was also a notorious womanizer, who preferred women of easy virtue, which can't have been good for his health. He had two illegitmate children that he supported, Henry, who was deaf and Harriet who may have been dim-witted. He was also a bit of a dandy, one of the leaders of the 'Macaroni' set of followers of continental fashions.

Looking at his portrait, you can see why not just Elizabeth, but everyone loved him. His eyes are kind, and there is a sweetness about his expression. His luxuriant eyebrows made him known among the Whigs as 'the Eyebrow.' He was not just a gifted orator but also a great ranconteur. As for Elizabeth, she seemed to have a stillness about her which calmed CJF's more frenetic energy. She also, according to Katie Hickman, had a genius for friendship. Fox once said that 'friendship was the only real happiness in the world.' Most of her former protectors stayed friends, after CJF's death, they kept her afloat until her death. While not considered to beautiful (although her portrait above by Reynolds suggests that she was quite lovely), she was a good listener, which a trait which can never be underestimated. Soon after they became lovers, it was clear from his letters that she had his absolute confidence and trust, that he treated her like an equal. Unfortunately, most of Elizabeth's letters to Fox haven't survived, so we are missing one part of the equation. But it is clear from his letters to her that she had quickly become indispensible to him. They were two mature people who were delighted to find each other, not two kids in the first flush of infatuation.

Soon after they met and became lovers, they settled down into a monogamous relationship, but sometime after, Elizabeth had a moment of panic. It was the first time in her career that she had no protector to pay the bills. Being a courtesan was an expensive lifestyle, appearances had to be kept up. How did Elizabeth know that Fox's ardor would last? While several courtesans had ended their careers with a stable union, more often then not, they ended ignobly, dying in poverty. Elizabeth had no real ambitions to go on the stage, nor did she harbor literary ambitions like Mary Robinson. Instead, she made the momentous decision to break things off with him, planning on moving to the continent, whether it was because living was cheaper or she thought she could restart her career on the continent.


But Fox would not have it. He wrote her one of the most beautiful love letters that a man could write:

'No my dearest Liz, you must not go indeed you must not, the very thought of living without you so totally sinks my spirits that I am sure the reality would be more than I could bear....I have examined myself and know that I can better abandon friends, country and everything than live without Liz. I could change my name and live with you in the remotest part of Europe in poverty and obscurity. I could bear that very well, but to be parted I can not bear...'
After receiving that letter, what choice did she have but to throw her lot in with Fox, and only him? What woman in her right man would leave a man who could write like that (no British stiff upper lip for him). She had broken one of the cardinal rules of being a courtesan, she had fallen in love with a poor man (Fox had lost all his fortune by now, and he refused to use his office for profit). Instead, Elizabeth sold her houses in London, and moved permanently to Queen Anne's Hill in Chertsey, which she later was able to purchase with help from the Duke of Marlborough.

Deeply in love, they were also best friends. Elizabeth spent most of her time at her home outside of London at Queen Anne's Hill, unless Fox needed her in London. She made him keep regular hours, made sure that he ate, and that he cut back on his drinking. They lived a thoroughly domestic life, in fact their friends were surprised to find out how much they enjoyed little things like shopping together for crockery. They shared an interest in gardening. The only flaw as far as Elizabeth could see was that Fox had no interest in music, a particular love of hers. In town, due to late sessions of Parliament, Fox found it hard to keep on the straight and narrow in regards to his drinking and late nights. She was his sounding board, listening to his speeches, darning his shirts. Their house became a gathering place for the Whig politicians. Fox's nephew, Lord Holland, his elder brother's son, was a frequent visitor from nearby Eton. Elizabeth apparently was a great reader, and they would read aloud to each other from the poets and writers of the day.

Elizabeth would occasionally escape abroad for small holidays or day trips to Bath to take the waters for her rheumatism. Due to their relationship, while in London, they could only been seen in public, in the Park, shopping or at the theater. They couldn't attend social functions together unless they were also public occasions like a public masque. Elizabeth didn't mind, she was a woman of the world, and she knew the rules.

The early years of their life together were notoriously busy for Charles James Fox. He became Secretary of State, not once but twice, the second time in a coalition government, headed by the Whig Duke of Portland. Fox was working on a bill to reform the East India Company, which passed through the House of Commons relatively easy but was stopped cold when it got to the House of Lords. Fox had been done in by Pitt and the King who had formed a plot to sabotage it.


Although they were devoted to each other, Fox was still considered an eligible man, and daughters were pushed at him, even though he was a younger son. Thomas Coutts, the banker, hoped that Fox would marry one of his daughters, Fanny, which would have solved all of his problems. Elizabeth, all together more practical then her lover, resolved to leave him so that he would be free to marry. Once again, he refused to let her leave him. He wrote her this letter:

"I can never be happy without you and you have promised to be ruled in this instance by my determination. That is fixed and if you love me, I shall be happy, if not, I shall be miserable, but still with my Liz, for never can I give my consent to part with her. Do repeat to me my dearest love that you love me tenderly, dearly and fondly for it is such a comf to me to hear it and read it; and it is true, my deatest Liz, is it not?"

It was after the Coutts affair that in 1795, Fox decided it was time for he and Elizabeth to wed. There had been a precedent for courtesans marrying their protectors. Kitty Fisher, one of the most famous courtesans of the 18th Century, married a member of Parliament, and retired to his country estate, until her death 5 months later from using lead-based face paint. There was still the problem of whether or not, Elizabeth would be received, if they married. Elizabeth was also worried that Fox might regret marrying her, but he assured her that after twelve years of connubial yet unmarried bliss, his love for her was as strong as ever. So they married, but Elizabeth insisted that the marriage be kept a secret.

It was only revealed to the public in 1802, after the couple embarked on a trip to France, so that Fox could work on a biography of James II. He wanted to avoid a repeat of their last trip to Europe, where Elizabeth had been snubbed by English travelers that they had met. If it was known they were married, the English abroad would be hard pressed to refuse. There was a brief peace in the hostilities between France and Britain and the English were flocking to France having been denied her pleasures for a number of years. Fox was pleased that Elizabeth was, if not warmly received, that she was not snubbed either. In fact most found it hard not to like Elizabeth when they met.

The only fly in the ointment was Lady Holland, the wife of Fox's nephew. Lady Holland had been married before, when she had embarked on an affair with Holland and become pregnant with his child. After the divorce, they married. Despite Lord Holland's love for his uncle's wife, Elizabeth, Lady Holland refused to meet her. Perhaps, she found Elizabeth's situation too similar to her own. After all, an adulteress and a courtesan are sort of sisters of the same skin.

Lady Holland was also in Paris at this time as well, and was not happy to see Elizabeth such a success. It came that Mrs. Fox was to be presented to Josephine and Napoleon. Elizabeth chose to pretend that her dress was not ready, so that Lady Holland would not be offended. However, Lady Holland left Paris when she found out that she was not invited to any of the private parties.

Back in England, Fox's younger brother Henry, his wife, and Fox's niece Caroline came to call on Elizabeth. Soon other family members followed including, Fox's aunt, the dowager Duchess of Leinster. She soon made a champion out of Lady Holland to everyone's surprise. There were a few hold-outs among Fox's friend's including Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall (who would one day have a granddaughter, Scandalous Woman, Jane Digby). But Whig hostesses Lady Bessborough and the Duchess of Devonshire accepted Elizabeth immediately. Most of Fox's friends, whatever their misgivings, couldn't help but respond to Fox's own happiness at being able to finally show off his Liz.

In 1806, Fox became the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Lord Grenville's new government. His years in the wilderness were over. He threw himself into the job with a vigor belying his age of 57. Fox had two objectives, to negotiate peace with France, and to abolish the slave trade. However, his health was not what it once was. They moved into a house in London, loaned to them by the Duke of Bedford, where they had a steady stream of visitors. Fox was so swamped with official papers that he had to work late into the night.

Elizabeth was now Mrs. Secretary Fox, the wife of a cabinet minister. He would rely on her strength in the coming months. While he had the affairs of state to handle, Elizabeth had her own official business to tend to. She paid calls and made visits of etiquette, arranging small working dinners for Fox, and tried to shield him as much as possible. Fox's legs started to swell. He eventually needed a wheelchair to get around because of gout.

She also decided to hold her first supper and ball, set for the 19th of May. The Duke of Bedford once again came to the rescue, offering her Bedford House, and the Prince of Wales's upholsterers redecorated the state apartments. The only question was, who would come? They needn't have worried. All told 400 people attended the evening. Elizabeth's ball was an unmitigated success.

Fox's health continued to decline to such an extant that his friends thought to find him a less onerous job, by suggesting a peerage, which would have elevated him to the less strenerous House of Lords, but Fox wouldn't hear of it.

Charles James Fox died at the age in September 1806, almost 8 months after his rival William Pitt. His last words to her were 'It don't signify Liz, my dearest Liz." Although Fox had hoped to be buried at Chertsey with Elizabeth, it was decided that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey on October 10, 1806 on the anniversary of his election to Parliament from Westminster in 1780. Unlike Pitt's funeral, Fox's was a private affair. Elizabeth Armistead outlived her husband by almost thirty-six years, dying in July of 1842 at just 3 days short of her 92nd birthday at Queen Anne's Hill. She was buried in Chertsey. In her last days she was surrounded by a meange of Foxes, Hollands, and other friends.


Most of the Scandalous Women written about on this blog have had lives that ended unhappily for one reason or another, as if they needed to be punished for breaking society's rules or stepping out of the box. Elizabeth Armistead was one Scandalous Woman who managed to have a happy ending. It was a happy ending that by rights should never have happened. Although she was never accepted completely by society, she was Fox's best friend and his greatest confidante, the one woman that he couldn't live without. While others may have thought that it was Elizabeth who gained the most by her association with him, Fox always believed that he was the lucky one, to have met and loved his Liz.

Sources include:

Wikipedia

Courtesans - Katie Hickman (All quotes from CJF's letters to EA are from this book)
Passion and Principle: Lives and Loves of Women in Regency England - Jane Aiken Hodge


Places Associated with CJF and EA:

The Fox Club - The Fox Club is a membership only club that is housed in the townhouse where Elizabeth Armistead lived happily for a number of years with Charles James Fox.

Foxhills - Now a family oriented golf club this was once the home of CJF and EA.

Royal Mistresses: Jersey Lily and the Prince

'She is so pretty, she takes away a man's breath, she has no right to be intelligent, daring and independent as well as lovely.' George Bernard Shaw on Lillie Langtry

Amazing what a little black dress can do. In one night, it catapulted Lillie Langtry from an unknown young woman trying desperately to break into London Society into one of the most well-known women in the Victorian era. Painters clamored to capture her likeness on canvas, people bought her photographs to display, and she captured the heart of not only the future King of England, but the grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Her name was Lillie Langtry.

She was born Emilie Charlotte LeBreton on October 13, 1853 on the island of Jersey, part of the Channel Islands, where her father, the Very Reverand William Corbet Le Breton, a clergyman was dean and the rector of St. Saviours Parish Church. She inherited her looks from both her parents. Her father was over 6 feet tall, with a shock of white hair and piercing blue eyes, while her mother, Emilie Davis, was petite and auburn haired. Her mother suffered from ill-health through out most of her life, her father was robust and larger than life, with a charismatic personality. The LeBreton family was very well respected and Lillie was naturally proud of her ancestors how had served with William the Conqueror in their defeat of the English at the Battle of Hastings.

Lillie wrote in her autobiography about her father, "I am convinced that the stage suffered a greater loss than the army, for my father had the true histrionic gift, and his dramatic talent would have undoubtedly made him a fine actor."

He was also an inveterate womanizer.

At one point when Lillie was 16, she had fallen in love with a handsome local boy, only to find out from her father, that he was his illegitimate son. Lillie was the only girl among 6 brothers, she grew up believing that anything they could do, she could do or better. The outcome of this upbringing was that Lillie was what they like to call a 'man's woman' utterly at ease in the company of men. She liked them and they liked her. She also understood them, and how to get what she wanted, two traits that would stand her well as she made her way through life. Her father believed in education for women, so Lillie started taking lessons from her brothers tutors in Latin, Greek, maths, German, French, music and art. Not a typical education for a Victorian girl, who mainly learned needlework and how to deal with household management.

She wrote in her autobiography that she was nick-named Lillie because of her beautiful lily-white complexion. She hated the name Emilie as well as her middle name of Charlotte which she considered 'dreadful'. For the rest of her life she would known as Lillie. She grew up into a beauty, the epitome of the 19th century standard. Tall, broad hipped and full-bosomed, with a pearly white complexion, and golden brown hair, Lillie dreamed of a life outside of island of Jersey. She was so beautiful that she received her first marriage proposal at the tender age of 14. Due to her mother's ill-health, Lillie began to appear at official functions, in mother's place. She became accustomed to speaking publicly and to dealing with people from all walks of life, including those who were many years older than her.

She dreamed of London and everything that city conjured up. She'd had one unsuccessful visit here at the age of 16. Many wealthy Londoners chose Jersey as a winter retreat. One of these men, Lord Suffield, suggested that Lillie was beautiful enough to have a London season. Lillie and her mother were elated, but they soon discovered that without connections, it was impossible to navigate the intricacies of London society. The only invitation they had was to a ball hosted by Lord Suffield. Despite her beauty, she more than likely came off as provincial, and lacking in manners. She eagerly wore her one evening dress to the event, but the modiste in Jersey could not compete with the extravagant creations that London society women wore. She talks in her autobiography of being at a dinner and being confused by the many forks and knives displayed in front of her. 'I felt like a clumsy peasant, I disgraced myself so often I could scarcely wait until the evening came to an abysmal end.'

Back home, Lillie determined that if she ever had the chance at London society again, things would be different. She applied herself to studying, preparing herself for the next time she made her way to London. The only problem was how to achieve that goal. Enter one Edward Langtry. She met him in 1873 when her brother William married Elizabeth Price. Edward Langtry was Elizabeth's brother-in-law, a widower, whose wife had died tragically of tuberculosis two years after they were married. His family had been shipbuilders from Belfast, and he owned an 80 foot yacht called The Red Gauntlet. Lillie later said that she fell in love with the yacht but married the owner. Despite her parents belief that she needed to see more of the world, and the disapproval of her younger brother Reggie, she married Edward Langtry several months after they met.


Lillie was in for the shock of her life. Contrary to what she had been led to believe or chose to believe, Edward was not as wealthy as she had thought. The Langtry family had gone from rags to riches and then back again. Edward, as a gentleman, did not work for a living. Their only income came from the rents on some Irish properties that he owned. They moved to Southampton in England, where Lillie was bored out of her mind. There was little society in Southampton and Edward spent most of his time racing his yacht. Lillie also realized that they had nothing in common, while Lillie was intelligent and well read, Edward's interests were mainly yachting and fishing. Things came to a head when Lillie came down with a serious case of typhoid fever, and almost died. Fortunately for her, she was able to convince her doctor that London would be the best place for her to recuperate. Lillie was ecstatic, finally she had arrived!

The couple arrived in London in 1876. But initially Lillie's experience of London this second time was even worse than the first. The couple would spend their days visiting museums or walking through the Park hoping to run into an aquaintance who might help introduce them into society. Once the season was over, and society had fled to their great country estates, Lillie began to spend most of her time indoors reading, while Edward, used to spending a great deal of time out of doors, took to drinking as his newest hobby.


Coinciding with their move to London, Lillie’s younger brother, Reggie, was killed in a freak horse accident. She was now in mourning. It was during this rather bleak period of her life that fate finally intervened. She and Edward were visiting a the new aquarium in Westminster where they ran into old family friends of the Le Bretons, the 7th Viscount Ranalegh and his two daughters, Jersey inhabitants who spent the season in London. The Langtrys were invited to stay at the Ranalegh’s home in Fulham. Ranelegh was somewhat eccentric, he lived with his mistress, the mother of his seven children, who declined to marry. Lillie took Lord Ranelegh into her confidence about their lack of society. Soon after their return to Eaton Place, the Langtry's received an invitation to dinner at the home of Lord and Lady Seabright, friends of Lord Ranelegh. Like their friend, the Seabright's considered themselves to be bohemian, Lady Seabright was a talented amateur actress. Among their frequent guests were artists and actors, including Henry Irving (later to be Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted), which was unusual for the time when society was much more of a closed circle, limited to those few families who owned most of the land in England.

Edward Langtry was not much of party animal, but Lillie, fully recovered from her illness and very bored, desired a change so she convinced Edward to go. Still wearing mourning, Lillie arrived at the party wearing a plain, figure-hugging black dress. Amid all the colorful plumage of the female guests, Lillie Langtry stuck out like a like a beacon of purity. Immediately, the artists Frank Miles and John Everett Milliais , a fellow countryman, who were also guests at the party, sought out the ethereal beauty and both asked if they could paint her portrait. Millais managed to win the chance to take Lillie into dinner.

Frank Miles, a very popular painter of the era made a line drawing of her on the spot, thus immortalizing her moment of discovery. Not only was Lillie beautiful, it was soon discovered that she was well read and could converse on a variety of topics, making her not just another pretty face. It was hard not to be enchanted by her and she was the hit of the party. Lillie Langtry was now launched not just in Society but to the world at large.

Soon she would pose for most of the major painters of her day including Edward Poynter, James McNeill Whistler, George Frederic Watts, Edward Bourne Jones, and became friends with many of them. She seemed to embody the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements that were coming to fruition in the 1870's. One of the most famous paintings done was by Millais, in which she wore her simple black dress, an amaryllis in her hand. The flower was mistakenly thought of as a Lily giving rise to her new nickname 'The Jersey Lily.' The portrait was hung at the Royal Academy, soon nominated Portrait of the Year and had to be roped off because of the crowds eager to see whom Milliais called “the most beautiful woman on earth.”

But it was the photographs that truly made her famous. Photography was just coming into its own, and many society women, including Jennie Jerome Churchill, Mrs. Luke Wheeler, the Duchess of Leinster and Patsy Cornwallis West (a good friend of Lillie's) had their photographs taken which were then offered for sale. They were known as Professional Beauties or PB's. These photos were collected not just by the lower classes but also by the middle class who kept them in special scrapbooks.

This must have been a heady time for Lillie. In what seemed like an instant, she had gone from obscurity to being feted by most of the artists of the day. In our celebrity driven era, the idea of being flavor of the month or the minute, is taken for granted. But in the late 19th century, the idea that a young woman could become almost famous overnight was a novelty. What was it about Lillie that made her so unique? She seemed to have come out of nowhere, in her one black dress, with her whiff of impoverished gentility.


Soon Lillie and Edward were invited everywhere, not just by the artists of the day, but also by society. Invitations flooding their tiny flat on Eaton Place. James McNeil Whistler helped to relieve some of the gloom of the place by stenciling gold palm fronds on the walls of the maroon drawing room. While Edward was out of his depth, Lillie was in her element. Knowing a good gimmick when she found one, Lillie continued to wear her black evening dress all events. Of course, she had a legitimate excuse, still being in mourning for her brother, but she was more than aware how the dress flattered her creamy complexion and contributed to her fame. The reign of the black dress came to an end when she was invited to a party by Lady Dudley, whose husband disliked the color black. Instead she wore a stunning white velvet confection that hugged her figure (Lillie, unlike most Victorian women, didn't wear a corset). At one dinner party, the Marquess of Hartington, heir to the Duke of Devonshire, stepped into the marble pools in his evening attire at Devonshire House, grabbed out handfuls of the water lilies and offered them to her.

Where ever Lillie went, she was now mobbed. She became a fashion icon, women imitated the way that she wore her hair, her hats, even her dress sense. She acquired many admirers, including John Leslie and Moreton Frewen (who both later married the younger sisters of Jennie Jerome Churchill). Among her coterie of new admirers was also the young Oscar Wilde, who wrote a poem about her called The New Helen. They became great friends, Oscar would teach her Latin and Greek, taking her to the British Museum to look at the antiquities. Laura Beattie, in her excellent biography of Lillie, writes that the two mutually used each other, as they continued their assault on the world. At the time of their meeting, Oscar Wilde was only a few years out of Oxford, and just beginning to make a name for himself in London as a dandy and aesthete. He would later become famous for wearing velvet suits and walking through the streets of London carrying a large lily. He would later be immortalized as one of the inspirations for Bunthorne in Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta Patience.

It was almost inevitable that Lillie would soon come to the attention of the Prince of Wales himself. Albert Edward, nicknamed Bertie, was the Queen's second child and the heir to the throne. He was also a notorious voluptuary, and marriage didn't slow him down. Intelligent, but denied any meaningful role to his mother's antipathy towards him (she blamed him for the death of her beloved Alfred who died after contracting typhoid after visiting the Prince at Oxford to chastize him for his behavior), he was confined purely to a social role. Since the Queen had more or less hidden herself from view due to her role as a professional widow, the social aspects of the monarchy fell to the Prince and his beautiful wife Princess Alexandra.

The Prince was the leader of what became known as The Marlborough House Set, named after Marlborough House, the London home of the Prince and Princess of Wales. At this time, society in London was evolving. While the Queen's court contained many of the same arisocratics that had served the monarchy for centuries, the Prince of Wales sought out not only those aristocrats who had the time and energy to devote themselves to pleasure, but also those men and women who risen through industry and commerce. He also loved beautiful women, particularly witty women. At dinner parties, during the time when men and women seperated, the Prince preferred to be sitting with the women, then spending time smoking cigars and drinking brandy with the men. He loved chatting with them about fashions, and gossiping. Although his wife, Princess Alexandra, was beautiful in her own right, (as the years went by, while he grew fatter and greyer, she seemed frozen in time, captured at the height of her beauty) they had little in common. Marriage and the birth of six children (five of whom lived) hadn't slowed him down.

It was at a dinner party given by Sir Allen Young after the opera in June of 1877. Lillie wrote in her autobiography: "Suddenly, there was a stir, followed by an expectant hush, a hurried exit of Sir Allen, then a slight commotion outside, and presently I heard a deep and cheery voice say: 'I'm afraid I am a little late.' Sir Allen murmured something in reply, and the Prince of Wales, whose face had been previously unfamiliar to me except through photographs, appeared in the doorway of Stratford Placing drawing room."

Soon after they met, they became lovers. He would visit Lillie at her home, Edward Langtry discretely absent. Hostesses knew that if they wanted the Prince of Wales to attend their parties, then Mrs. Langtry would have to be invited as well. It was soon clear that Lillie Langtry was the Prince of Wales official mistress. Being a Royal Mistress wasn't the same as it had been in the days of Charles II, when the royal mistress could expect titles and properties for her service to the Crown as it were. Those days were long gone. The Prince usually chose as his mistresses married women who had already given their husbands an heir. Lillie was unusual in that although she was a married woman, she had no children.

However there was the perk of gifts of jewelry (Lillie ended up with one of the finest collections of jewelry), and the house in Bournemouth, nicknamed the Red House for its distinctive Tudor architecture. The Prince of Wales had the house built as a getaway where the two could be alone without the distractions of a weekend house party. The initials E.L.L. were engraved on the foundation stone, and a stained glass window with the phrase, 'They Say, What Say They? Let Them Say' was installed. The house was a gift to Lillie that she kept after her days as his official mistress were over.

Credit was also extended to Lillie by virtue of her relationship with the Prince. Now that she was his official mistress, she needed to look the part, which meant dressing in the latest gowns designed by Worth and Doucet among others. Women at that time changed clothes at least 3 or 4 times a day, which meant a lot of dresses, from tea gowns to morning dresses, riding habits to evening downs. Lillie had now acquired her own horse, the better to ride with the Prince in Hyde Park on Rotten Row. The Langtrys moved to a new house on Norfolk Street, which they could ill afford, but appearances had to be kept up. It wouldn't do for a royal mistress to entertain her lover in a poky little flat.

Lillie being taken up by the Prince meant that she was socially acceptable to a certain segment of society that had been closed to her before then. It was one thing to be the darling of the artists and bohemians of the day, but Lillie was smart enough to realize that her position was solely dependent on her royal lover. She even found herself hobnobbing with members of the Danish Royal family, and the Empress Eugenie of France, who lived in exile in England after Napoleon III was deposed, along with the Prince Imperial. Even Princess Alexandra was won over, Lillie was the only of the Prince of Wale's mistresses, that Alexandra didn't mind. Perhaps it was because she was the first official mistress, or maybe it was because Lillie genuinely liked the Princess.

Lillie was now so famous that the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prince Rudolf fell in love with her on a visit to London, and pursued her ardently. He famously smudged her beautiful pink dress from Doucet with his sweaty hands. When she asked him to put on his gloves, he declared that it was she who was the one sweating! He presented her with a ring, attempting to press his attentions on her. When Lillie threw the ring into the fire, the Prince dropped to his knees to try and dig it out. Lillie lost all respect for him after that.

The Prince adored Lillie not just because she was a beautiful and sensual woman, but because she was not awed by him. Like the American women who married into the aristocracy, she treated him with the deference due to his rank, but she also wasn't afraid to tweak him when necessary. She loved practical jokes just as much as he did. In fact she once spent time at country house party tobaggoning down the stairs on a silver tray. She had a gregarious and extroverted personality like the Prince, but she was much more of a witty conversationalist than he. They had sailing and racing in common, the Prince was an avid sailor and spent a great deal of time at the races at Goodwood, Ascot and Deauville. Lillie and her younger brother Reggie had once secretly trained a horse that they entered in one of the races in Jersey, which they won. When she was once asked by Prime Minister Disraeli, what he could do for her, she replied "Four new dresses for Ascot."

Very little of the relationship was mentioned in the press. Unlike nowadays when you would be hard pressed to pick up an English tabloid newspaper that didn't have an article on Prince William and Kate Middleton, or Prince Harry and his girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the English papers of the time had a hands off policy towards the Royal Family in terms of their private life. Of course, everyone knew that the Prince of Wales and Lillie Langtry were lovers, one just didn't read about it in the papers. Even during the years when Edward VII's grandson, another Prince of Wales was falling for Wallis Simpson, the papers were remarkably silent. Not so across the Atlantic where even the venerable New York Times remarked on His Royal Highness's relationship with the beautiful Lillie.

The height of Lillie's relationship with the Prince occurred when she was finally presented at court. Generally young women were presented during their first season before they are married, but Lillie pestered the Prince until he agreed. First Edward had to be presented at Court, and then a sponsor had to be found for Lillie. She practiced for weeks to make sure that she didn't step on her train while walking backwards in her Majesty's presence. Women who were presented at court were required to wear white feathers in their hair, and the Queen had been heard to complain about the paltriness of the headresses of the women presented at court. Lillie in a moment of madness and bravado, picked the three tallest, whitest feathers that she could find which she wore in her hair in an imitation of the Prince of Wales insignia. Filled with nerves, she tried to delay her arrival, hoping that the Queen would have gotten tired and left, and she would be presented to the Prince. However, the Queen stayed, curious to see the famous Mrs. Langtry in the flesh (she had earlier taken down a picture of Lillie from her son Prince Leopold's wall). Lillie's presentation was a triumph. She had risen to the top from obscurity, it was only a matter of time before she fell and how hard.

Slowly the cracks were starting to show. From receiving universal acclaim in the press, they started to criticize her. But she still had her relationship with the Prince. For three years, Lillie and the Prince of Wales were lovers, a remarkable feat given the Prince's attention span. Edward Langtry, unfortunately put in the position of being a cuckold, escaped from his life at the bottom of a bottle. He dutifully put in appearances at parties to put the gloss on the relationship with the Prince but he was bitter and unhappy at the hand that fate had dealt him.

While Lillie enjoyed the Prince's favors, he was not the only one who enjoyed the Jersey Lily. Years after their deaths, letters were found in a house in Jersey, that were between Lillie and Arthur Jones, a young man she had known from her days in Jersey. They are passionate letters indicating a long love affair, although little is known about Arthur Jones. He was one of Lord Ranelagh's illegitimate children by his common law wife. Arthur and his brothers and sisters had grown up between Worthing with their mother and Jersey, where he became good friends with Lillie's brother Clement, a relationship that was cemented further when Clement married Arthur's sister Alice. There was also a relationship with the young Lord Shrewsbury, which was instigated by his mother no less, who thought that he would benefit by a realtionship with a slightly older woman (Lillie was still in her mid-twenties).

And Lillie had competition herself for the Prince's favors from none other than the Divine Sarah, Sarah Bernhardt herself, who arrived in London to take the theater world and society by storm in 1878. The Prince took a box at each opening night during the London run. Lillie was also becoming reckless. At a charity event at the Royal Albert Hall, where Lillie was pouring tea, one could purchase a cup of tea for an extra guinea if Lillie took the first tip. When the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with their two young daughters, arrived at her booth, Lillie took a sip without being asked. The Prince wisely told her to pour him a cup that hadn't been touched.

Her relationship with Edward was becoming increasingly strained. His jealousy and self-pity led to emotional and physical abuse. There was also the matter of the creditors who were becoming increasingly vocal about being paid. A periodical called Town Talk claimed that Edward Langtry had filed a petition for divorce and would name the Prince of Wales as a correspondant. This wasn't the first time that the Prince of Wales had been named in a divorce proceeding or a court case and it wouldn't be the last. When Town Talk pursued the topic, the Langtrys still didn't respond, hoping that their silence would end the rumors. It wasn't until the periodical went after Lillie's good friend Patsy Cornwallis-West, accusing her of keeping a photography studio in her house to take photos which she sold, that the Langtrys joined in the suit that the family brought against the periodical. The editor was forced to apologize and to spend time in jail but . Edward was humiliated having to take the stand in the trial. His admission that there was no divorce suit meant that there was no possibility of him suing her for divorce without looking like a liar. After the trial, he began to spend more time away from her, ostensibly in Ireland trying to raise money to pay their creditors, Lillie would never know when he might return.

Around 1879, Lillie met a distant relation of the Prince of Wales, His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg. The product of a morgantic marriage between Prince Alexander of Hesse to a commoner, Prince Louis, handsome, gentle, and a member of the Royal Navy was on leave awaiting his next assignment. The Queen was afraid that her daughter Beatrice would fall in love with him, leaving her without a companion (Beatrice eventually married Louis's brother Henry).

They were instantly smitten with each other. The Prince of Wales encouraged the relationship, since his own interest in Lillie was waning. On her part, Lillie was very much in love with the handsome Prince. However, the relationship could go no further since the Prince was eventually posted to a ship taking him away from Britain. Nor could they marry. Given the circumstances of his own parent's marriage, and Lillie's inconvenient husband, a love affair was the only thing possible.

The cause of the demise of the Prince of Wale's relationship has been debated. The story (and the one that is dramatized in the miniseries Lillie) is that the Prince and Lillie were invited to the same costume party. Lillie showed up wearing a Pierrette costume while the Prince was dressed as a Pierrot. The Princess of Wales was also attending the costume ball, having her husband's mistress show up in a similar costume to her husband must have been humiliating. The Prince was not pleased at Lillie's actions, while he cheated on his wife repeatedly, he still had a great deal of affection for her. Another story has it that at another party, as a practical joke, she stuffed strawberry ice cream down his back. Lillie never mentions this story in her autobiography, and it would have been beyond the pale even for her, but the story made the rounds and had become part of her legend.

The affair was now over. Still they remained friends, corresponding over the years, and the Prince made a habit of taking a box at all her opening night performances during her later career as an actress. When late in 1880, Lillie discovered that she was pregnant, the Prince went out of his way to help her. Louis was sent away on a trip around the world, and the Prince saw to it that Edward Langtry was invited to shooting parties and fishing trips to keep him away from Lillie so that her secret would not be discovered. Whether the father of Lillie's baby was Prince Louis,l the Prince of Wales himself, or Arthur Jones no one knows for sure. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Louis's son, and the uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh believed that Lillie's daughter Jeanne-Marie was his father's daughter. Unless a DNA test is taken no one will ever really know. However Louis did provide a settlement for Jeanne-Marie who was born discreetly in Paris, and lived with her grandmother in Jersey. While Lillie was in Paris, awaiting the birth, the contents and the house itself were sold to pay her debts. A chapter in her life had closed.

Until she was 14, Jeanne-Marie thought that Lillie was her aunt, and her father was one of Lillie's brothers. When she learned the truth that Lillie was her mother, she still thought that Edward Langtry was her father. It wasn't until just before her marriage to Ian Malcolm in 1902 that she finally learned the truth. At a party just before her wedding, tart-tongued Margot Asquith, asked Jeanne-Marie what she had received from her father as a wedding present. When Jeanne-Marie replied that her father was dead, Margot Asquith revealed that he was none other than Prince Louis. She was bitterly angry towards her mother, and they had very little to do with each other after that. Her husband, however, was fond of his mother-in-law, and continued to see her occasionally, contacting her if he had a problem that he needed to sort out, relying on her advice.
Lillie's father past discretions also caught up to him around the time of Lillie's pregnancy. He was forced to leave Jersey to accept a position in Kennington as a vicar. The official reason was that it was for his health. Although he remained the Dean of Jersey, it was in name only.

Lillie, like most Scandalous Women who found themselves in a bind, took a long hard look at her life. In her case, she decided to go on the stage. It seemed like a natural idea, after all, hadn't she been playing a part since she arrived in London? She tested the waters by taking part in two charity concerts, before making her official debut as an actress playing the part of Blanche Haye in a play called Ours. Of course taking this step would have meant social death for her. Actresses were not accepted in polite society, they were considered one step up from prostitutes. If Lillie wanted to still be part of the social set that she had known as the Prince of Wale's official mistress, she needed a patron, someone influential who could help her. She found him in Prime Minister William Gladstone who became a great friend, another in a series of father figures that Lillie acquired through out her life.

Lillie became a successful actress, specializing in light comedies. She was the manager for a time of the Imperial Theater in London, and used her high profile to endorse commercial products such as Pear soap which was unheard of at that time. She traveled throughout not only England on tour, but she also launched several successful tours of America, where she eventually bought a 4,200 actre winery in California. Lillie's fame in America was so great that Judge Roy Bean, grew obssessed with her, although the town of Langtry, TX was not named after her (it turns out that Bean spread that rumor himself). Like many of the English, past and present, she found America quite to her liking. She was pursued for a time by a rich American named Freddie Gebhard, who showered her with gifts including a Pullman railway carriage.

She even became an American citizen which allowed her to divorce Edward Langtry, finally shedding him after years of a dead marriage. Poor Edward, his life hadn't turned out quite the way he had wanted. A wife who despised him, treated like a non-entity by society, he passed his final years in an insane asylum where he died.

After Edward's death, in 1899 Lillie married the much younger Hugo Gerald de Bathe (she was 49 and he was 30), who stood to inherit a baronetcy on his father's death. Speculation is that this was young Hugo's primary attraction for Lillie, since they spent very little time together after their marriage. She became involved in the horse-racing world that she loved, although as a woman she was not allowed to join the Jockey Club (she registered herself as Mr. Jersey!) before retiring from the stage. One of her horses, Merman, won the prestigious Goodwood Cup, among other prizes.

She stayed great friends with the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. In fact, she was one of 3 mistresses who attended the King's coronation (the others being Mrs. Keppel and Daisy, Countess of Warwick). He attended all of her opening nights at the theater. After his death, Queen Alexandra personally returned to Lillie the numerous letters she had sent to the Prince over the years.

In later years, she spent a great deal of time in Monaco, where Arthur Jones lived. Her husband lived only a short distance away, but they only saw each other when she needed an escort for social gatherings. She lived with her close companion, Mathilda Peart, who was the widow of Lillie's deceased butler. She published her autobiography in 1925 called "The Days that I Knew" which was notable more for what she left out than for what she kept in.

Lillie finally passed away at the age of 78 in 1929. She is buried in the graveyard of St. Saviour's Church in Jersey.

Lillie's story in many ways is a Cinderella story. Young woman is plucked from obscurity to infamy, becoming the mistress to not one but two Princes. Lillie may have been in the right place at the right time in history. Did she love the Prince of Wales? Probably not, is she loved anyone, she loved Arthur Jones, the one man in her life who wanted nothing from her but her love, and could offer her nothing material in return. Lillie loved what the Prince offered her, an entre into a world that she could only dream about, that for a brief time was hers. Being the Prince's first 'official' mistress, brought fame but it also brought just as many problems. Lillie spent those years dancing on a tight rope.

But it is what she made of her life after that brief moment of basking in the rays of royalty that is the true story of her life. Lillie came into her own, after surviving bankruptcy, when she had to rely on her own wits. Yes, she still had influential people in her life who helped her, but she seemed more content in the bohemian and racing circles where she spent the rest of her life.

Sources include:

Days I Knew - Lillie Langtry's autobiography (available on Alibris)
Edward the Caresser - Stanley Weintraub
Lillie Langtry: Manners, Masks and Morals - Laura Beatty (available on Alibris)
Cupid and the King - Princess Michael of Kent
The King in Love, Edward VII's Mistresses - Theo Aronson (excellent book, available on Alibris)

Novels:

Death at Epson Downs by Robin Paige - features Lillie Langtry and Jennie Jerome Churchill as characters

TV:

Lillie - This is the miniseries on Masterpiece that started my interest in Lillie Langtry. It stars Francesca Annis as Lillie, Denis Lil as the future Edward VII, Anton Rodgers as Edward Langtry, and Peter Egan as Oscar Wilde. Note: Francesca Annis played Lillie in an earlier miniseries about Edward VII starring Timothy West. It was just a few scenes but it led to her getting her own miniseries.

Places Associated with Lillie Langtry:

The Langtry Hotel in Bournemouth - This is the house that Edward VII had built for Lillie which is a luxury hotel where one can stay.

The Langtry Estate Winery - Lillie bought this estate on one of her tours of America in 1888 sight unseen. She sold it in 1906, and the estate was run as Guenoc for a number of years until recently when it changed it's name back to the Langtry Estate Winery. You can buy Lillie wines.