Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen and Rebel- Part I

I confess that I have been fascinated with the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine ever since I saw the movie The Lion in Winter in high school. Who was this woman who taunted Henry II, who got under his skin? It was more than just Katherine Hepburn's portrayal, although she was fabulous. I immediately wanted to know more about this woman. Apparently I'm not the only one who is fascinated with her. Countless books have been written over the centuries. Google her name and you'll find thousands of articles as well.

Why this fascination with a long ago Queen? Well, she was the most powerful woman in Medieval Europe, wife to two Kings and the mother of two Kings, founding a dynasty that would rule England for the next 330 years. In her lifetime, she was the subject of scandalous rumors, that she rode bare-breasted on crusade, that she slept with her uncle, murdered her husband's mistress. She was a warrior who helped her sons revolt against their father, and served as regent while Richard the Lionheart went on crusade. She died at the relatively advanced age of 82, in an age when the average life span was probably about 40.

Eleanor was born Alienor of Aquitaine around 1122. Her grandfather William IX was a musician, poet, acknowledged as the first troubadour. He was also no stranger to love or to scandal. After divorcing his first wife, he married a widow who gave him two sons, William (Eleanor's father) and Raymond (who became Prince of Antioch). When his second wife bored him, she was sent to a nunnery where she lived until her death. Instead of remarrying, William decided to abduct a married woman (shades of Uther Pendragon) named Dangereuse (what an absolutely delicious name) who became his mistress.

In time, William decided that Dangereuse's daughter Aenor should marry his son William against his son's wishes. They were married in 1121, with Alienor (Eleanor) following nine months later. Two more children followed, Petronella and William Aigret. Both Eleanor's mother and William Aigret died young, leaving Eleanor the sole heiress to the duchy of Aquitaine.

At the this time, France was not the size that it is now. The duchy of Aquitaine while swearing fealty to the French King, was 1/3 the size of modern France. It was a prize, and whoever married Eleanor would be incredibly powerful. Eleanor and her father were incredibly close. Like his father before him, William X was a patron of the troubadours and storytellers who flocked to the court. Proud of having such a beautiful, lively and intelligent daughter, William made sure that she was highly educated. She traveled with him throughout the duchy, preparing for her role as Duchess.

When she was just15, her life changed forever with the death of her beloved father from food poisoning while they were on pilgrimage. In order to protect Eleanor from being kidnapped for her inheritance after he was gone, on his deathbed, William dictated a will making her a ward of Louis the Fat, King of France. Coveting the duchy of Aquitaine, Louis married Eleanor off to his son, the future Louis VII on August 1, 1137. There was only one tiny catch. Aquitaine would remain independent of France for the moment, but if the union was blessed by a son, he would be both King of France and Duke of Aquitaine.

Like another mis-matched King and Queen, Marie-Antoinette and Louis XIV, Eleanor and her new husband had absolutely nothing in common. While Eleanor was willful and high-spirited, Louis was quiet and pious, regarded by some as a saint (in fact, he was later made a saint after his death). No one, however, would ever mistake Eleanor for being a saint. Before Eleanor could adjust to being a wife, she became a Queen when her new father-in-law died a few days after the wedding.

Never one to sit around doing needlework, Eleanor threw herself enthusiastically into her new role as Queen of France. She got off on the wrong foot immediately with the French court. Even Louis' own mother thought her flighty and a bad influence. Her conduct was constantly criticized by church elders, but it didn't matter to Louis, who was madly in love with his new wife. He consulted her often on matters of state much to the chagrin of his ministers. Eleanor also frequently visited Aquitaine, where she was much loved by her people.

The only fly in the ointment was their lack of a child. Bernard of Clairvaux (who was also a thorn in Abelard's side) insisted that Eleanor was childless because she was wicked. Eventually, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie in 1145, eight years after her marriage at the relatively advanced age of 23. However, having a child didn't make Eleanor settle down. When Louis decided to go on the Second Crusade, Eleanor announced that she was joining him. Along with a company of 300 women (you can imagine how much luggage they brought). Louis advisors were completely against it until Eleanor also offered the services of a 1000men from Aquitaine.

Eleanor insisted on leading the soldiers from Aquitaine herself. However, the rumor that she and her women dressed as Amazons with one breast bare has been disputed by historians. She did however, launch her crusade from Vezelay, the rumored location of Mary Magadelene's burial. The crusade itself was a disaster. Louis didn't have the first clue on how to lead an army. By the time they reached Asia Minor, things went from merely bad to worse. A group of French soldiers lead by Geoffrey de Rancon, a vassal of Eleanor, were slaughtered by the Turks when they ignored the King's orders to make camp for the night. Eleanor was blamed, since Geoffrey was her vassal, it was assumed that she had given the order to continue to the next plateau. Her reputation was sullied and went down hill even further with the rumors of an affair with her uncle, Raymond who had married Constance of Antioch. Although Raymond had a reputation for being a faithful husband, he paid special attention to his beautiful, flirtatious niece.

Louis and Eleanor had been growing apart, and the Crusade just emphasized how incompatible they were. When Raymond pleaded for Louis's help in defending Antioch, Eleanor took his side. When Louis refused to assist Raymond, Eleanor declared that she wanted a divorce. Louis, who adored his wife, was angry and hurt. When Eleanor refused to accompany him to Jerusalem, insisting on staying in Antioch with her uncle, Louis had her brought out by force. She never saw her uncle again. In 1149 he was killed in a battle against the Muslims. His severed head was sent to the caliph in Baghdad.After a disasterous trip to Jerusalem, Louis and Eleanor returned to Europe by seperate ships. They were both persumed lost for months until Eleanor ended up in Sicily and Louis in Calabria. They reunited in Rome, when the Pope Eugenius III maneuvered events so that the estranged couple ended up sharing a bed. Their daughter Alix was born 9 months later, but it was too late to save the marriage.

Although Louis adored his wife, he was willing to let Eleanor go. He had the future of the throne to think about. After 15 years of marriage, they had only 2 daughters and no sons. Eleanor, of course, countered that it wasn't her fault, in order to have an heir, he had to sleep with her. On March 11, 1152, the marriage was dissolved, on the grounds of consaguinity. This was ludicrous since the close relationship between the two (they were third cousins) had been known before they got married. Their two daughters were declared legitimate and the King was given custody. Eleanor's lands of Aquitaine and Poitou were returned to her.

But Eleanor was not to be alone for long. Two months later, she married the Henry , Count of Anjou and Normandy, son of Matilda, and grandson of Henry I of England, shocking everyone. Not only was Henry, at 18, 11 years younger than Eleanor, but it had been rumored that Eleanor had slept with his father prior to her relationshiop with Henry. According to contemporary chronicler, Gerald of Wales, "Count Geoffrey of Anjou when he was seneschal of France took advantage of Queen Eleanor; for which reason he often warned his son Henry, telling him above all not to touch her, they say, both because she was his lord's wife, and because he had known her himself." But, ignoring his father's advice, Henry "presumed to sleep adulterously with the said queen of France, taking her from his own lord and marrying her himself. How could anything fortunate, I ask, emerge from these copulations?"

Whether or not she slept with his father, Eleanor and Henry were well-matched. They shared similar backgrounds, both were highly intelligent and strong-willed. His physical courage and keen political mind meshed well with her ambition for power. And they were powerfully attacted to one another. They had met while Eleanor was still married to Louis, when Henry had arrived at the French court to conduct peace talks between Anjou and France. Some historians believe that Eleanor and Henry made plans then to marry once her divorce went through. Ironically, they were just as related as Eleanor and Louis were. And his father warned him against marrying Eleanor. His warnings fell on deaf ears.

War broke out between Henry and Louis when the news of the marriage hit Paris. Louis was outraged by his ex-wife's conduct. As his vassal, she could not marry without his permission. Henry won the war quickly, leaving Louis to scurry home to lick his wounded pride. To add insult to injury, Eleanor and Henry also had a son, William, a year after their wedding.

Two years after their marriage, Henry of Anjou was King of England and Eleanor was now Queen of a kingdom that stretched from the Pyrnees to the Cheviots.


Stay tuned tomorrow for more on Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Miriam Folline Leslie - Empress of Publishing

She was an actress, an editor, a supporter of woman's rights and a business woman in the days when a woman's place was clearly in the home, and not in the boardroom. She took a failing business and turned it around, not once but twice becoming the most successful business woman in America. She hobnobbed with Presidents, and sparred with Brigham Young. A beauty who loved diamonds, with a fair complexion and golden curls. An early feminist who left her entire fortune to further woman's rights. And finally a much-married, flirtatious, social rule breaker, who many women might have called a home wrecker but never to her face.

Miriam Florence Follin (or Folline) was born in the Vieux Carre district of New Orleans in 1836. Like other scandalous women, she came from an inauspicious background. Her parents appeared not have been married, and the family's income was dependent on her handsome, erratic but cultured father. Charles Follin wandered around the country failing in one business after the other. However, he didn't neglect his daughter's education, making sure that she learned French, German, Latin and Spanish. He also encouraged her to develop her feminine charms.

Miriam grew up charming but headstrong. When the family moved to New York, Miriam met a young jeweler's clerk, named David Peacock, who let her wear diamonds from the store where he worked. Miriam's mother, Susan, worried that her daughter's virtue had been compromised, had Peacock arrested. She demanded that he make an honest woman of her daughter. Threatened with jail, Peacock agreed but on the proviso that they didn't live together and he wouldn't have to support her. After two years the marriage was mercifully annulled.

Newly single, Miriam embarked on her next adventure. It seems that Miriam's older half-brother had fallen madly in love with the notorious Lola Montez, while he was out living in California searching for gold. He didn't find any gold, but he did find Lola! After leaving countless lovers and husbands in Europe, Lola had come to conquer America. Noel was no match for the fiery Lola who thought nothing of attacking anyone who angered her with the bullwhip she carried like some people carry a purse. Several months after they met, he committed suicide.

Dramatic as always (Lola frequently gave her best performances off the stage), Lola was for onece in her life stricken with guilt. She went to New York and through herself at Susan's feet, screaming that she had killed her son. To make it up to the Follin's, she decided to take Miriam on the road with her.

They went on the road as the Montez sisters where Lola's notoriety and Miriam's beauty drew the crowds. Along the way, Miriam must have absorbed the lessons of seduction as practised by Lola because she had a host of admirers including a Senator from Tennessee, who although married, nevertheless bought Miriam a house in New York. Finally Miriam was beginning to move in the social circles to which her father had envisioned for her.

Soon Miriam met husband number 2, Ephriam G. Squier, an archaeologist who just happened to be the president of a railroad. Squier was 37 and Miriam was 21 but he was immediatly enchanted by her big blue eyes and pleasing conversation. Married in October 1857, Miriam moved into Squier's tastefully furnished home and set about on her next adventure. She was able to travel, and she attended the country's most exclusive gatherings and events including Lincoln's inaugural which led to a meeting that would change her life but Squier's as well. It was there at the inaugural ball that she met Frank Leslie.

Frank Leslie was born Henry Carter in England in 1821, the son of a glove maker. Although he loved to draw, his family discouraged him. He secretly sold some illustrations to London Magazines using the pseudonymn of Frank Leslie. Later, Leslie went to work for the Illustrated London News before finally moving to America where he initially worked for P.T. Barnum where he illustrated the programs for Jenny Lind's tour. After leaving Barnum's employ, he started his own illustrated publications, the first of their kind in America. His motto was "Never shoot over the reader's head."


At the time that Frank Leslie met Miriam, he was a married man with children. He hired Ephraim, whose railroad was not doing too well, to work as an editor of his Illustrated Newspaper, and Miriam to edit his Lady's Magazine, where she was a great success. She was able to translate her conversational skill into the written word so that in a few years, she was editing several of Leslie's many publications.



When Squier heard that Leslie had separated from his wife, he generously offered to let Leslie move into one of their spare bedrooms. This arrangement lasted for a decade and led to whispers in society about what exactly was going on with the three friends. Things got even stranger when the Squier's accompanied by Leslie went to Europe in 1867 for the Exposition in Paris. Frank Leslie had been named United States commissioner to the Exposition. When the ship arrived in Liverpool, Squier was arrested and thrown into prison, after someone alerted his impending arrival to some of his old creditors. While Squier languished in jail, Leslie and Miriam went to London. Finally after two weeks, they bailed him out of jail.





Despite this, the three of them continued on to Paris where Miriam gathered information about the new Paris fashions for her readers, and the two men worked on the Exposition. The trio lived together, worked together, and travelled together. Finally Squier began to notice that he was being pushed aside. He began to notice that his wife was wearing diamonds that he hadn't given her, and going out at night with Leslie while he stayed home. At one point, he'd had enough, traveling to Peru for a year. When Leslie's wife accused Miriam and Frank of adultery, Squier refused to believe it.





New York at this time was living it up in post Civil War ebulliance. Affairs were conducted openly and the city's demi-monde thrived. There was a certain taste for the bohemian came into style and the thin line between the demi-monde and the rich was almost invisible. While Frank Leslie and his wife were still married, the status quo between the three was kept. Once Leslie was divorced, Miriam decided that she would prefer to be married to Frank and not her husband. However, Ephraim didn't want a divorce. To get her way, Miriam arranged for Squier to attend a party at a 'disreputable house' and invited several courtesans, where several Leslie illustrators were conveniently on hand to sketch him in a compromising position. Of course when Miriam sued for divorce, the two artists were on hand to testify to what they had seen.


A month after her divorce was final, Miriam and Frank were married. A month after that, Squier was committed to an asylum on Long Island. He spent the rest of his life in and out of asylums. Miriam was initially blamed for her ex-husband's insanity, particularly when it came out later that her first husband also ended up in an asylum. However, Squier's brother declared that Miriam was only one of the symptoms of his brother's problems.




Now, 38, Miriam was a wife for the 3rd time. As the new Mrs. Frank Leslie, she threw herself into New York society. They bought a mansion on Fifth Avenue once owned by the notorious Boss Tweed, and Miriam spent lavishly on carriages, horses, Paris gowns and expensive jewelry. They even bought a summer estate in Saratoga where wealthy New Yorkers retired to take the waters and to gamble in the casinos. Around this time she met the poet Joaquin Miller, the Byron of the West. Miller was tall blonde and handsome, with an outsize personality similar to Miriam's. He declared his love for her, immortalizing her in a novel The One Fair Woman. For more than 30 years, they rendezvoused all across America and Miriam wrote glowingly of his work in Leslie's publications.



In 1877, the Leslies took a cross country trip by rail to California first class of course in the finest railroad carriages of the period inclduing a Pullman Hotel car. As they travelled, Miriam kept a journal which she later turned into a book called California: A Pleasure Trip from Gotham to the Golden Gate. The book received excellent reviews. During their trip out West, Miriam had the opportunity to match wits with the Patriarch of the Mormon Church Brigham Young himself about the merits of polygamy.


Just as Miriam was enjoying the fruits of literary success, the roof caved in on the couple. The first blow was Frank's financial collapse in 1877 due to the economic crisis. Frank had overexpanded his empire and the couple had spent more than the publications earned for some time. The publicatons were assigned to another publisher and Frank was demoted to general manager, only receiving a small portion of the profits.


Then came the second blow, a 24 page pamphlet was published by a Virginia City newspaper incensed at the way Miriam had dissed their city in her book calling it a 'god-forsaken place,' and accusing the women of being of the worst class. The pamphlet exposed her slightly unsavory past including her first marriage, her affair with the senator, and her illegitimacy, not to mention her adulterous relationship with Frank before their subsequent marriage. There was only one person who could have given the paper all that information and that was Ephraim G. Squier, who finally seems to have had his revenge on his wife and his former friend.


The final blow was Frank's death in 1880 from throat cancer before he could finish paying off the debt. Miriam was now a widow at 43 with a failing business, and a host of lawsuits from Frank's children contesting his will. But Miriam rose to the occasion like a phoenix rising from the ashes. She managed to pay off $50,000 of the debt, and then her most ingenious move, she had her name legally changed to Frank Leslie so that she could continue to use the name on the publications.



Once again fate was on Miriam's side with one of the biggest stories of the decade. James Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau on Saturday, July 2nd 1881. Miriam immediately sent two artists to Washington, summoned the staff back to work, and produced an issue of the Illustrated Newspaper with special assassination coverage by Tuesday, July 5th. She then took the unprecendented move of issuing a further two issues on the assassination. She was in the right place at the right time, and the genius to take advantage of it.


Like many media moguls of the 20th century, Miriam turned a profit through aggressive make-overs of the magazines, timely scoops, and modernizing the equipment. The male dominated business world was astonished at her moxie. They hailed her as a 'Commercial Joan of Arc.' and a 'miracle money-maker.' By 1885, Miriam was earning $100,000 annually while meeting a payroll of 400 employees. During her lifetime she also managed to churn out a further 6 books and nearly 50 articles.


Miriam was not about to retire her dance card however. As she herself wrote in one of her advice books for women, 'the belle is apt to be a widow who upstages ingenues with her seasoned social charms, perpetual youth and intellectual and conversational powers.' She could have been describing herself. Men wooed her relentessly at her Thursday night salons. At one point she was involved with a French marquis who wooed her with poems only to throw him over for a Russian prince, fifteen years her junior. When the men fought a duel over her, she dropped them both.


Instead she married Oscar Wilde's brother, the witty William C.K.W. Wilde, who was 39 to her 55, after only knowing him for 4 days. The honeymoon had barely begun before Miriam realized she'd gotten a lemon instead of a thoroughbred. Willie got drunk at the wedding and basically stayed that way for 6 months. While Miriam went to work, Willie could barely drag himself out of bed long enough to make it to one of his clubs. The puritan in her rebelled at this. The marriage dragged on for two years before Miriam finally had had enough. As she put it, 'He was no use to me either by day or by night. I really think I should have married Oscar.'


Miriam always kept one eye on her business despite her romantic adventures. She wore tight black gowns, while blending a masculine core of steel along with her feminine charms. After a few years, she began to sell off the remaining Leslie weeklies, keeping the popular Monthly magazine. However, she was called into rescue the magazines again, when the syndicate that she leased her remaining publications to got into financial trouble. However, she was forced out in 1897 for good.


In retirement she continued to travel and write and in 1901, she claimed to have discovered that she was the baroness de Bazus, through a distant relation. Even at the end of her life, she was still drawing admirers, including a Spanish count who unfortunately died before they could marry. When she died in 1914, she left her entire $2 million dollar fortune to Carrie Chapman Catt, one of the leaders of the suffragette movement to fund the cause. Although Frank Leslie's relatives once again sued, and the amount was reduced to $1 million dollars, her bequest paid for the salaries of 200 full-time workers, aiding the cause tremendously.


Miriam Follin Leslie lived her life as intensely romantic as any novel, poem or song written in the 19th Century. She also proved that a woman could run a business as successfully or her in case even more successfully than any man while still remaining very much a woman.

Ninon de Lenclos - Mademoiselle Libertine

"A woman who has loved but one man, will never know love."





The Sun King was known to ignore the views of his advisors and peers during his long reign, but whenever he wanted a second opinion, he was known to ask "What would Ninon do?"

Who was this Ninon that an absolute monarch like Louis XIV would seek her advice? She was a French author, courtesan and patron of the arts, whose long life lasted almost as long as the The Sun King's reign in France. In her lifetime, she was known as the sine qua non of courtesans, her salons were attended by some of the greatest minds in France, including Racine, Corneille, de Francois, duc de la Rochefoucauld and Moliere, who tried out all his plays on her first.

After her death, Saint-Simon summed up her career as: "A shining example of the triumph of vice, when directed with intelligence and redeemed by a little virtue." Her prowess with men was so well known that there is a urban legend that for years after her death, the women of Versailles sued to petition her be-ribboned skull for erotic success.

She was born Anne de Lenclos on November 10, 1620 (another Scorpio, what a surprise!) in the Marais district of Paris, although some biographies give her date of birth as everything from 1614 to 1623. She was nicknamed 'Ninon' by her father who she adored. Her family were middle class, Voltaire wrote that her father was a lute player. Her parents were a study in contrasts. While Madame de Lenclos was almost pious in the extreme, Monsieur de L'enclos was a fun-loving libertine who abandoned them when Ninon was fifteen after a duel over another man's wife.


Ninon grew up in a tug of war between the religiousity of her mother, and the free-wheeling attitudes of her father. It was easy to see which parent would win out, although Ninon loved both her parents. From an early age, Ninon was determined to be independant and unmarried. After observing the disasterous marriage between her parents, it is easy to see why. When she was 12, Ninon declared to her father that she was no longer a girl, but a boy. Amused, her father had his tailor make her an outfit consisting of breeches, doublet, and boots, taking her out riding in the park dressed in her new garb. He also educated her like a boy, teaching her history, philosophy and lute playing.


By the age of 13, Ninon's opinions on religion had been formed. She snuck in books on Montaigne (a noted writer during the Renaissance who became famous for his ability to combine serious intellectual speculation with anecdote and biography), and other philosophers into her prayer books in church. And once she even sang a bawdy song in the middle of a sermon during Holy Week. When she was scolded by the cleric, Ninon declared that religion was nothing but an invention.


Despite her mother's best efforts to turn her into a god-fearing pious woman, Ninon was determined to live a life of pleasure, both physical and mental. Since she had no dowry to speak of, Ninon only had a few choices in life. Either to marry, enter a convent, take a position as a governess like her friend Madame de Maintenon, or become a courtesan. To the horror of her mother, she allowed herself to be seduced and ruined by the young Comte de Coligny. Thus she embarked on the life that led to her fame and fortune.



Ninon took a succession of notable and wealthy lovers, including the King's cousin, the Great Conde, three generations of the Sevigne family, Saint-Evremond, the duc D'Enghien among others. She divided her lovers into three categories, "the payers, the martyrs, and the favored."

Even Cardinal Richelieu desired to be among her lovers, offering 50,000 crowns for a night in her bed. Ninon took the money and sent her friend, the courtesan Marian Delorme instead.


Ironically for someone who was so sought after, Ninon was no beauty. She had a long nose, heavy eyebrows, and a double chin. But her lovers didn't care. One of them admitted that her mind was more attractive than her face. Ninon was a rare creature when 2/3 of the women couldn't sign their name. The accepted virtues of feminity were silence, docility, chastity, piety, and domesticity, none of which Ninon possessed. As she once said, "If anyone had proposed a life of chastity to me, I should hanged myself." Uninhibited, Ninon swam in the nude, and talked about sex openly like a French Dr. Ruth. But her biggest erotic secret was probably the fact that she bathed regularly.


Instead of waiting to be wooed, Ninon was not afraid to be the pursuer. She would cruise the Cours la Reine each day in a satin sedan chair, until she saw someone she fancied, and then propositioned them with billet-doux. "Love with passion but only for a few minutes," was her motto. She had a time limit for her lovers of three months. Only once did Ninon engage in monogamy. For three years, she lived with the Marquis de Villarceaux. Unlike her other lovers, he was not an intellectual but a compulsive womanizer. It was lust at first sight. They moved to his country estate, where he hunted, while Ninon continued her studies with a resident scholar. They had a son who Ninon loved and promoted for the rest of her life.


After the novelty of monogamy wore off, and de Villarceaux's charms no longer satisfied her, Ninon left him and moved back to Paris. When he followed her in a jealous fury, Ninon cut off all her hair and handed it to him, starting a new fashion for the "Ninon bob" in the process. Like most of her other lovers, de Villarceaux couldn't stay mad at her for long and they stayed friends.


She also established a salon at 28 rue des Tournelles in the Marais. It soon became the place to be seen. Women dominated French cultural life in the 17th Century. It was French women intellectuals who created the idea of the salon, where ideas could be entertained. Ninon's own drawing room became the place to discuss literary arts. At her salon, there was no card playing or loud chatter, no arguments and absolutely no discussion of religion or politics. Ninon kept things light and easy with an emphasis on music and art. She permitted no drunkards, and shunned alcohol herself.


She wasn't a snob either. At first her salon was all male, but later in her life, woman began attending. Although she was shunned by most respectable women, Ninon became friends with Francoise Scarron when as a young wife, she attended Ninon's salon's with her husband the poet Paul Scarron. The women were so close that after her husband's death, Francoise moved in with Ninon, leading to rumors that the two women were lovers.


Ninon was also known for her wit, in an age of prized wit. When her opinions on organzied religion landed her in hot water, and into a religious house on Anne of Austria's orders, Ninon sweetly suggested, "The Monastery of the Grand Cordeliers?" This monastery as all of Paris knew was notorious for it's debaucheries. On another occasion, one of her lovers refused to go on a business trip unless Ninon signed a contract vowing of fidelity while he was gone. Although she signed it, as soon as he was gone, she took up with a series of new lovers, declaring "Oh that little guarantee that I signed?"


While she was imprisoned by Anne of Austria, Ninon took the time to write a little book called the "Vengeance of the Coquette" which she secreted in her underwear. She was finally released after her friend, Queen Christina of Sweden convinced Cardinal Mazarin to release her.


When Ninon entered her forties, she decided to retire from being a courtesan. Instead, she opened an academy where she taught the arts of love to the sons of the aristocrazy, with a special emphasis on pleasing women. Her curriculum apparently included the care and handling of a mistress or a wife, the correct approach to wooing, and ways to end an affair. Ninon's school was an immediate success. Although no formal record was kept of her classes, many of the things she said were remembered and then widely repeated by her pupils.


Among them: "Talk to your woman continually about herself and seldom about yourself"
"It is all very well to keep food for another day, but pleasure should be taken as it comes," and "A woman who is through with a man will give him up for anything except another woman!"


Ninon would listen to the specific problems of her pupils privately and advise and guide them. On several occasions, she took them to bed to demonstrate the act of love when verbal instruction just wouldn't do. Many women of the nobility were jealous of the instruction the men received and wanted instruction of their own. While she wouldn't conduct classes for them, she did help them privately. When one young woman wanted to know how big a woman's breasts should be to please a man, Ninon replied "Large enough to fill an honest man's hand."


There is a story that Ninon had a son who was raised by his father, and did not know who his mother was. The son was introduced to Ninon and fell in love with her, unaware of her identity. When Ninon revealed the truth, he committed suicide, since their love could not be consummated.


Ninon lived to be 85. Although she no longer went by her nickname, preferring Mademoiselle L'Enclos, she still had lovers up until the very end. In her later years, she became enamored of her lawyer, Franois Arouet's son, also named Francois who later went by the name Voltaire. In her will she left 2,000 livres for him to buy books. Ninon regretted nothing in her life except aging. "Old age is a woman's hell," she said. On her deathbed, she composed this final verse:


I put your consolations by,

And care not for the hopes you give:

Since I'm old enough to die,

Why should I longer wish to live?

After her death, she was eulogized as a sex icon, the subject of numerous plays, books, and myths.

Misunderstood Queen: Marie Antoinette

This is a special post for me, because Marie Antoinette and I share a birthday, and from childhood I've been fascinated with the beautiful Queen who lost her head in the French Revolution. For along time Marie Antoinette suffered from the reputation as being nothing more than an empty-headed beautiful woman who famously declared to the masses, "Let them eat cake!" (Actually according to Antonia Fraser in her biography of the Queen, she never said this.)


But was she a victim of circumstances or did she contribute to the demise of the monarchy by her prolifigate and licentious behavior at court? Recently, several new biographies that are a little more sympathetic to Marie Antoinette have come out and Sophia Coppola's movie was released last year (which I saw on my birthday).

Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia on November 2, 1755 in the Hofburg Palance in Vienna, to Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Lorraine. Maria was the 15th of Maria Theresa's 16 children and the final girl. Called Antoine as a child, she was spoiled and petted by her family who could deny her nothing. She was blonde with porcelain skin and vivid blue eyes. The Hapsburg court was relaxed and convivial. Maria Antonia's parents were an actual love match which was rare in the 18th century, particularly among royalty where the most one could hope for was mutual tolerance.

The little Archduchesse's education was left in the hands of her governess who was happy to spend her time spoiling the high spirited girl instead of teaching her. Antoine spent more time playing than studying to the point that she was barely able to read and write in her native German. She did however excel in music, drawing and dancing. When Antoine was ten her father died suddenly. Her mother Maria Theresa wore mourning for the rest of her life, while she ruled Austria with her son Joseph, much to his dismay.

In order to cement an alliance with France, Maria Theresa arranged a marriage between Louis-Auguste and Antoine. Since her older sisters were either already married, disfigured by small pox or dead, Antoine was the only choice. Maria Theresa wanted the alliance in order to stave off the threat of Prussia. Antoine was given a crash course in French history and customs towards which she proved an indifferent student. Her teeth were also straightened to make her conform more to the French idea of beauty. Nothing could be done about her lack of a bosom however, except to hope that she would fill out more when she gave birth.

In April of 1770 when Antoine was still only 14, she was married by proxy to Louis-Auguste with her brother filling in as the groom. At the border to France, Antoine was stipped of her Austrian clothing and regarbed in clothing that was fashionable at the French court, transforming into Marie Antoinette. Even her little pug was taken away from her.

When Marie Antoinette first arrived in France, she was much loved by the French people. However, the aristocracy of France was another matter entirely. A marriage had been promoted between Louis Auguste and the House of Savoy, which would have been more pleasing to certain factions at court. Instead, Louis' two younger brothers married Savoy princesses.

Matters were not helped by the indifference of the Dauphin. At the time of their marriage, Louis was barely fifteen, fat, awkward and shy. He preferred hunting or working in his locksmith shop to spending time with his bride. And then there was the matter of providing an heir for France, a matter that took seven years to resolve. On numerous occasions, and as tactfully as possible, Marie Antoinette tried to bring up the subject of “living in the intimacy” required of their vows, as did his physicians. Finally in 1777, he finally managed the feat. But the impasse was resolved only when Marie Antoinette’s brother, the brusque Emperor Joseph II of Austria, arrived at Versailles to have a talk with his sister about her spendthrift ways. Joseph was digusted at the discovery, he wrote to his cadet, Archduke Leopold, in Vienna, that the King “has strong, perfectly satisfactory erections; he introduces his member, stays there without moving for about two minutes, withdraws without ejaculating but still erect, and bids goodnight.” If he had been there, he swore, he would have had Louis whipped “so that he would have come out of sheer rage like a donkey.”

Apart from the ongoing humiliation of having her bedsheets checked for blood, and her periods monitored by ambassadors to every court in Europe, the ordeal of Marie Antoinette’s prolonged virginity kept her in limbo. As long the marriage could be annulled, she had to cultivate an “appearance of credit” with the King. Cultivating the appearance of virtue might have been a more politic strategy, but Marie Antoinette chose to model her style and behavior on those of a royal paramour. Previous royal Queens had been nondescript and all but invisible. The French court was ruled by the Louis XIV's mistress en titre Madame de Montespan, and Louis XV's mistresses Madame de Pompadour and lastly Madame du Barry.


Court at Versailles was much more rigid than Marie Antoinette was used to. From the time she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night, she was never alone. The thought of which unnerved her. She wrote to her mother about how she despised being dressed by her ladies in waiting and having to eat meals in front of the public. Versailles was not unlike a small city state. It could hold up to 20,000 people. At any given time 3,000 Princes, courtesans, ministers and servants were in residence. Rival factions at court were constantly jockeying for position and favors with the King. The palace was a cesspool of disease, the corridors teemed with human waste and garbage. The palace was also open to anyone wishing to visit. Security, of course, was strict, but any subject, as long as he or she observed proper etiquette was allowed.

Marie Antoinette did herself no favors when she first arrived by refusing to speak to or acknowledge the King's mistress, Madame du Barry. Du Barry took it upon herself to gossip and backstab against the Dauphine until Marie Antoinette was persuaded to finally speak to her, an event that occured a year after she arrived at court. Much of Marie Antoinette's behavior at this time stemmed for her reaction to her marital frustration, her homesickness, and coping with the rigidity of court life. Behind her back, she was called L'Autrichienne, which could loosely be translated as Austrian bitch. Many of the nobility disliked her for no other reason than she was Austrian and foreign.

It didn't help that her mother was constantly sending her letters, criticizing her for her behavior, her failure to produce an heir, and exhorting her to remember her duty to Austria. Marie Antoinette complained to her mother that she had no influence, that the King was not willing to listen to her, because of his own Anti-Austrian sentiment.

As time went by, Marie Antoinette was openly rebellious. She chose her own friends from amongst the younger members of court, in particular the Duchesse de Polignac and the Princesse de Lamballe. She yawned and giggled her way through royal ceremonies. More time and effort was spent on her clothing and redecorating her rooms at court, all to stave off the inevitable boredom that must have been a constant companion. Marie Antoinette began going out alone, or with friends, venturing forth to Paris to attend the theater or balls disguised as ordinary citizens. She insisted on choosing her own clothes instead of having them just handed to her, and even whether or not to wear stays or corsets.

Marie Antoinette loved the outdoors, particularly hunting (probably the only thing that she and her husband had in common), despite the fact that it was considered masculine and too dangerous. She even defied her mother and her advisors by wearing breeches and riding astride like a man, instead of using a sidesaddle. When she had her portrait painted, dressed in her riding clothes, her mother was appalled. She said that it was the portrait of an actress not a future Queen.

In 1774, Louis XV, the Dauphin’s grandfather, died suddenly of smallpox, at sixty-four. “God help us,” nineteen-year-old Louis XVI exclaimed, “for we are too young to reign.” As Queen of France, Marie Antoinette had no official role, and no real political power. Her main role was to provide an heir or two to the throne. Four years later, Marie Antoinette finally presented her husband and France with a child, a daughter named Marie Therese Charlotte, the only member of the royal family to survive the revolution. Over the next several years, Marie gave birth to three more children, the longed for Dauphin who died young, Louis Charles (the fugure Louis XVII) and a daughter Sophie. Once her children were born, Marie Antoinette seemed to calm down, more settled and mature. She was a devoted and besotted mother to her children, and a good spouse to Louis. But the damage was done to her reputation.

18th Century France had no supermarket tabloids, instead they relied on pamphleteers to spread rumors and malicious gossip. Because the pamphlets were printed privately, they were too numerous for the government to surpress. Marie Antoinette was accused of everything from lesbian affairs to affairs with various men at court, including Count Hans Axel Fersen, a Swedish diplomat that Marie Antoinette had first met at court when they were both 18. There is no concrete evidence that they were indeed lovers, but they were certainly intimate friends, and Fersen was the architect behind a later rescue attempt for the Royal family. She was blamed for the country's financial problems, because of her extravagant lifestyle, despite the fact that one could argue that her extravagance provided employment for tradesmen, milliners, dressmakers, mantuamakers and others.

When Marie Antoinete began to favor the more natural chemise look which followed the natural shape of the body, she was accused of mounting an affront to the modesty and dignity of the monarchy. It seemed to confirm the rumors that she was indecent and immoral. The Affair of the Necklace was yet another nail in the coffin of the Queen's reputation, despite evidence that she had nothing to do with it. The Affair was dreamed up by Countess Jeanne de La Motte, and it involved a diamond necklace worth more than 1.6 million livres that was created for Madame du Barry. The King died before he could take possession or even pay for the necklace. The jewelers tried to entice Marie Antoinette, but she wisely refused to accept the necklace as a gift from her husband. He'd already given her the Petit Trianon, her private retreat on the grounds of Versaille where she could have privacy away from the Court to indulge in her love of theatricals and to spend time with her intimate court(which gave rise to even more scurrilous rumors about what went on there).

The Countess de la Motte used the Queen's name to get Cardinal de Rohun to purchase the necklace for her. The Cardinal complied in the hopes of getting into the Queen's good graces. When the scheme was revealed, the Queen demanded that the culprits be brought to justice at a trial to publicly clear her name. Unfortunately the trial did more damage, as the malicious rumors and gossip were brought up to reveal how easy it was for the Cardinal to be duped. The good will of the French people had already evaporated as the King's economic policies failed. When Louis was first crowned, there was hope that the new regime would bring new ideas and reforms to governing France. After awhile, the King seemed to lose interest in government.

In October of 1789, the Royal Family were forced to leave Versailles for the Tuileries. Two years later, the aborted rescue attempt occured. The plan might have succeeded if Marie Antoinette hadn't insisted on not being seperated from her children. Instead of several small coaches, they traveled in one cumbersome one. The Queen's brother awaited the Royal family just across the border, but they were caught at Varennes and brought back to Paris.

The monarchy was abolished in the fall of 1792 by the National Convention, declaring France a republic. In early 1793, after a short trial, Louis XVI was convicted of treason and beheaded. He was allowed one final meal with his family where he urged his young son and heir not to see revenge for his death. Shortly afterwards, Marie Antoinette's two children were taken from her. The Dauphin was fed alcohol and abused in an effort to force him to accuse his mother of incest at her trial in October.

After her husband's death, the Queen wore black in defiance. Her hair had turned white during her confinement and she may already have been dying from uterine cancer. All through her imprisonment, Marie Antoinette bore it stoically. She was a month away from her 38th birthday when she was taken from the prison of the Conciergerie, and paraded in an open oxcart to the scaffold in the Place de la Revolution. There was an eerie silence from the crowd along the route, the same people who probably screamed obscenities at her in 1789. Even on the scaffold, she apologized for stepping on the foot of her executioner. Dressed all in white, Marie Antoinette went to her death like the Queen that she was. Her son, Louis-Charles died in prison at the age of ten, alone and brutalized in the Temple prison, despite persistent rumors that he survived.

Marie Antoinette was an ordinary woman caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Her downfall was almost pre-ordained. The revolutionary spirit was over a hundred years in the making and it would have taken a stronger man than her husband to turn back the tide. Although Marie Antoinette's extravagance and willfullness maybe have contributed to the revolution, it was not the only cause. Perhaps if she had been better educated by not only her mother but also her husband's grandfather, she might have escaped the pitfalls that inevitably tripped her up.

Further reading:

Marie Antoinette: The Journey - Antonia Fraser

Sex with Queens - Eleanor Herman

To the Scafforld - Carrolly Erickson

All for Love - The Life of Jane Digby

"Being loved is to me as the air that I breathe," Jane Digby writing to King Ludwig of Bavaria.

Jane Digby in her day was called "one of the most remarkable women of the 19th century.' She survived the scandal of divorce, was the mistress to Kings before finally finding love in the deserts of the Middle East. In her lifetime, no fewer than 8 novels including one written by Honore de Balzac were written featuring Jane as a thinly disguised character, most of them not flattering portraits. She inspired envy and jealously in other women because of her beauty and the attention paid to her by men. In an age when women didn't travel, had very few rights, and were basically the property of their husbands, Jane forged a passionate destiny of her own, throwing over her proper life in England, for the life of a passionate nomad, searching for that one perfect love.

Jane Elizabeth Digby was born on April 3, 1807 in Dorset at Minterne Magna, the daughter of Admiral Henry Digby and Jane Elizabeth Coke, who had been married previously. For the rest of her life, her mother preferred to be called by her previous title of Lady Andover, despite her apparent happy marriage to Jane's father.


The family fortune was established when her father seized the Spanish treasure ship, the Santa Brigada in 1799. He was also the captain of the HMS Africa under Nelson's command at the Battle of Trafalgar. Jane was the first child, soon to be followed by two younger brothers Edward and Kenelm. She spent much of her childhood at her grandfather Thomas Coke, later the 1st Earl of Leicester's home, Holkham Hall, where she grew up with her cousins, among them the the 11 children of her aunt, Lady Anson. Much loved and spoiled by her parents and relatives, Jane grew up a bit of a tomboy, running and riding around the family estates. She had a governess, the redoubtable Miss Steele, who taught her the more refined pursuits of a lady. When Jane was 13, she was able to spent some time abroad in France, Italy and Switzerland, when her father was posted to Malta.

Jane's beauty and poise was noticed at a very early age, so much so that her mother decided to launch her into society soon after she turned sixteen. After being presented at court, Jane was fully launched. Only a few weeks into her first season, Jane met Edward Law, 2nd Baron Ellenborough (later Earl of Ellenborough and Governor General of India). Law was 17 years her senior and a widow. His first wife, Octavia, had been the daughter of the hated Lord Castlereagh who committed suicide in 1821. Edward had been a widow for several years when he began courting Jane.

After an eight week acquaintance, he asked her father's permission for her hand in marriage. On paper, it seemed a brilliant match. Lord Ellenborough was a rising politician, handsome with a reputation as a roue. Jane was very young for her age, and in her first season. Her family was well-off so there was no need for her to marry the first man who offered for her. But Jane was in love with the idea of being in love, and in the days of their courtship and their early marriage, Ellenborough spent considerable time wooing her. It must have been a heady experience to have someone like Ellenborough pay attention to her. Jane wasn't the first woman to make the mistake of marrying for the wrong reasons. However, once the marriage went sour, Jane proved herself to be a romantic rebel.

Ellenborough like William Lamb was ambitious and totally devoted to his career. He thought nothing of spending hours at the House of Commons long into the night, writing speeches, meeting with his political cronies. Jane was left no other option but to attend balls and parties often by herself. She soon fell into a fast crowd made up acquaintances of her husband. At first despite her husband's neglect, Jane and Ellenborough were reasonably happy. The turning point may have come when Jane learned that her husband had a mistress in Brighton where they had spent their honeymoon.

Jane's behavior in town was shocking enough that her family felt the need to talk to her about it. Jane pooh-poohed their concern. After all, they were her husband's social set, if they were good enough for him, then there should be no stigma to her her acquaintance with them. However, her family felt the situation was so serious, that they sent Jane's former governess Steely to talk to Lord Ellenborough, who was somewhat amused at the idea of a social inferior warning him about his wife.

When Jane decided to take a lover, she looked no further than her own family, her first cousin Colonel George Anson. While George was on leave from the army, he began squiring her to parties. Eight years her senior, he had grown up to be handsome and a bit of a rake, sowing his wild oats in London. Jane may have had a bit of a crush on him as a child, and now at the age of 19, her cousin fell under the spell of her beauty. They were soon lovers and Jane fell madly in love with him. Unfortunately the feeling wasn't mutual, although he walked the walk, and talked the talk for many months. Jane soon found herself pregnant, giving birth to a son, Arthur Dudley. Although she was still sleeping with Ellenborough, Jane was pretty sure that her son was actually Anson's.

After the birth of her son, who spent most of his time in the country where the air was fresher, her relationship with Anson foundered, and he finally broke it off. Jane was distraught and depressed that she could have been so wrong about his love for her. That summer she met Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, an Austrian diplomat, who had just been posted to London. It was love at first sight for the Prince, but Jane was still in mourning for her lost love. The prince persisted, wooing Jane through the summer, until she finally succumbed to his passionate declarations of love. She fell madly, totally in love with him, sowing the seeds for the eventual destruction of her marriage.

At first Jane and the Prince tried to be discreet. She would visit him in his house in Harley Street, either on foot, wearing a veil to hide her identity. Soon she was seen coming and going 3 or 4 times a week. At night they attended parties seperately to keep up the fiction, but soon they became reckless. Jane was seen by a neighbor in Schwarzenberg's embrace (which later came out during her divorce trial), the Prince lacing up her stays. Eventually, they took the risk of spending the night together at a hotel in Norfolk, when Jane went down to the country to visit her son. It was a mistake that Jane would soon have to pay for. A porter saw the Prince sneaking in and out of Jane's room. Despite paying him off, he still wrote a letter to her husband, telling him of what he'd seen.

Once again, Jane found herself pregnant. Only this time there was no way that she could pass of the child as her husband's. She hadn't been intimate with Ellenborough in months. Ironically, Jane's excuse was that she didn't want to get pregnant again. Events moved swiftly. Schwarzenberg was sent packing back to the continent before his career was totally ruined by the rumors of his adulterous relationship with Jane. Although Ellenborough had refused to believe the letter from the porter, friends of his felt compelled to tell him about her relationship with the Prince. Jane, of course, denied it while begging her husband to allow her to travel abroad ostensibly to get over the relationship but really to give birth in secrecy. Her husband refused.

Jane made the impetuous decision that she couldn't live without the prince. She made plans to flee England and to follow him to Switzerland. Her parents pleaded with her to at least attempt to repair her relationship with her husband. Her father, in particular, tried to impress upon her what she was giving up by leaving him to go abroad. If she stayed in England, and they formally seperated, she could still take her place in society after a suitable amount of time. But Jane was not to be denied. As far as she was concerned her life and her fate lay with the Prince. He was the only man that she wanted to married to.

Lord Ellenborough had no choice but to start divorce proceedings against her. An investigator was hired who dug up the information about Jane's trysts with the Prince in Harley Street. The divorce case was so sensational that for the first time, the Times of London featured the story on it's front page instead of the classified advertisements that were a mainstay of the paper until the 1960's. Getting a divorce at this time was incredibly difficult, that only two divorces were ever heard a year, the notoriety was particularly loathsome. Lord Ellenborough settled a sum on Jane to be paid for the rest of her life. He never remarried, although he lived with several mistresses, and had a host of illegitimate children. He never spoke of Jane again, although he built a monument to his first wife in the church near his family estate.

While the divorce proceedings were going on, Jane went to Basle to give birth to a daughter that she and Felix named Mathilde. However, there was no happily ever after for Jane and Felix, who told her that he would never be able to marry her due to his religion (he was a Catholic) and because it would detrimental to his career. Jane could sense that his feelings for her had changed, but she was still determined that they could make their life together work. However, the Prince had other ideas and in his passive-aggressive way, tried to push her away but not before she conceived another child, a son, who only lived ten days. After accusing her of being unfaithful, the Prince left Jane for good.

When the Prince deserted her, Jane didn't give up hope that she would eventually be able to convince him of her innocence. She moved to Munich to be near him when he was posted to Berlin, where she became the intimate friend of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who was captivated like many men before him by her beauty and intelligence. She shared his interest in classical antiquities and mythology. They called each other Ianthe (Greek for Jane) and Basily, writing to each other two and three times a day, even when they knew they would be seeing each other. She joined the pantheon of other beautiful women in his Hall of Beauty having her portrait painted by court painter Joseph Karl Stieler.

She also caught the attention of a German baron, name Carl Venningen who worshipped her and pursued her relentlessly while she pined for Felix who continued to write her letters of love while simultaneously keeping her at arm's length. After months of rebuffing Charles as she called him in the hopes that Felix would return to her, she finally succumbed to his attentions and promptly fell pregnant. Hiding out in Italy, she gave birth to a son, who was fostered out for the first few years of his life, until Jane could safely bring him home. Finally after Felix blew her off once again, Jane finally had to give up the ghost of her relationship, but not before giving up their daughter Didi to his sister, who grew up with no memory or knowledge of her beautiful mother.

Finally Jane agreed to marry Charles, despite her misgivings about the lack of a passionate attachment on her part. For a time, she was happy and it looked like she might have found her match. But her husband wanted to turn her into a German hausfrau, while Jane was lively and intelligent and loved parties. However, her marriage now made her acceptable at court and in the upper echelons of society that had been closed to her. She also met Honore de Balzac briefly who based one of his most famous characters, Lady Arabella Dudley, on her. The portrait was so vivid, that rumors went around that Balzac and Jane had been lovers in 1831 when she lived in Paris, a story that subsequent biographers have repeated, despite the lack of evidence.

After giving birth to another child, a girl, Jane met the next love of her life, a young Greek count named Spiridon Theotoky who fought her husband in a duel after he was caught eloping with her. Although Theotoky was wounded, he managed to survive. Baron Venningen generously decided to release Jane from her marriage. He received custody of their children, and he and Jane stayed friends for the rest of her life.

After five years, Jane finally married her Count, converting to the Greek orthodox faith. They had a child, Leonidas, who became Jane's favorite, the only one of her five children that she felt close to and that she kept by her side. Once again, Jane was happy until the family moved to Athens, and Spiridon became drinking and spending his nights out. After discovering that her Greek husband was unfaithful, Jane became the mistress of King Otto of Greece, coincidentally the son of her former lover, Ludwig, and the enemy of his wife Queen Amalie, who made it her mission to blacken Jane's name. Heartbroken at the death of her six-year-old Leonidas, who died falling from a balcony when he tried to slide down it, she became an inveterate traveller in the Middle East. For a time she became the mistress of an Albanian general and was thrilled to share his rough outdoor life as queen of his brigand army, living in caves, riding fiery Arab horses and hunting game in the mountains for food; until she found that he too was unfaithful with her maid no less and left him on the spot.


Now middle-aged but still stunningly beautiful, and vowing to renounce men, she headed for Syria, to see Palmyra the legendary kingdom of Zenobia, where she met and married the love of her life, a Bedouin nobleman, Sheikh Medjuel el Mezrab who was twenty years her junior. Medjuel offered to divorce his wife for Jane, within minutes of meeting her. Despite the advice of the British Counsel and her family, she threw caution to the wind, finally finding the one man, she could bond body and soul with. During the remainder of her life she adopted for six months of each year the exotic but uniquely harsh existence of a desert nomad living in the famous black goathair tents of Arabia; the remaining months she spent in the splendid palace she built for herself and Medjuel in Damascus. She never converted to Islam, but she dyed her blonde hair dark, since light hair was considered bad luck. As wife to the Sheikh and mother to his tribe this passionate woman found not only genuine fulfilment but further adventures, all of which she committed each year to her diary. She became good friends with Richard and Isabel Burton, when Burton was posted as consul to Damascus, and Lady Anne and Wilfred Scawen Blunt.

Jane made one last visit to England in 1856, shortly after her marriage to Medjuel. She found English society had become rigid and straight-laced under the reign of Victoria and Albert, who found her shocking, not only had she married an Arab but she also had 3 husbands who were still living! Although reconciled with her family, she was not allowed to talk about her marriage to Medjuel. Jane realized just how far she had moved away not just physically but mentally. Victorian England was no place for her. After six months, she kissed her family good-bye and returned to Medjuel and the desert.

In August 1881, Jane fell ill with dysentry. With her husband by her side, she finally passed away on August 11 at the age of 74. Obeying her final wishes, he had her buried in the Protestant cemetary in Damascus. Then her grief-stricken widower, rode out into the desert and sacrificed one of his finest camels in her memory.

Jane lived a remarkable life that was later matched by her great-great niece, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, who ended her adventurous and romantic life as Ambassador to France. Although she wasn't anyone's idea of a good mother, having abandoned her three living children, she led a life of passionate abandon and adventure, never giving up searching for love. Although she had many lovers, Jane wasn't really promiscuous. Apart from a few brief flings, Jane was a woman who lived for love, and enjoyed sex, which scandalized the Victorians, who covered their piano legs, and who taught women to close their eyes and think of England. In many ways, she was a modern woman living in a world that couldn't tolerate anyone outside the norm.

For further reading:

A Scandalous Life: A biography of Jane Digby - Mary S. Lovell
Seductresses - Betsy Prioleau

The King's Whore: Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland

Restoration England is one of my favorite periods of English history, so many fascinating personalities, among them the Merry Monarch himself, Samuel Pepys, the Earl of Rochester, Aphra Behn, and one of the most intriguing of all, Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, Duchess of Cleveland. One of the most famous royal mistresses in history, she was considered one of the most audacious and shocking. In her day, she was a household name, written about in numerous diary entries, painted by some of the most celebrated painters of her era.

She was described by Bishop Burnet as "a woman of great beauty, but more enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious." Charles himself claimed that "she hath all the tricks of Ariten that are to be practised to give pleasure." She also had her detractors, among them John Evelyn who called her "a vulgar mannered, arrogant slut." And Edward Hyde, the Earl of Clarendon (a title that was eventually given to a member of the Villiers family who still hold it to this day), spent considerable energy trying to get rid of her. Even the diarist Samuel Pepys, who admired her, wrote, "I know well enough she is a whore."

She was a beauty with a less than beautiful disposition. Barbara was born November 17 ,1640 to William, Viscount Grandison and his wife, the Honorable Mary Bayning. Barbara was a member of the notorious Villiers family, her father's cousin George was the 1st Duke of Buckingham, James I's favorite, immortalized by Dumas in The Three Muskateers as an admirer of Anne of Austria. The Villiers family had been in England since the days of William the Conqueror, but they were only minor nobility until George made his mark at the court. After his assassination in 1628, his son, also named George, was raised by the royal family along with Charles and his brothers. Another cousin, Elizabeth, would become the mistress of William III (the actor Christopher Villiers who starred in Top Secret with Val Kilmer is a distant relative).

Her father died of wounds sustained at the battle of Bristol when Barbara was a child. Her mother subsequently remarried her husband's cousin, Charles Villiers, the Earl of Anglesey. Barbara was farmed out as a child to the country where she lived with relatives and servants until her mother brought her to London when she was 15, with the idea of her making a brilliant match to restore the family's fortunes.

By this time, Barbara had grown up into a beautiful young woman. She was tall and voluptuous with chestnut hair and eyes so deep a blue that they appeared almost black. Even a bout with small pox did not dim her beauty, unlike so many others. She was also vivacious and lusty. It didn't take long before she caught the eye of the libertine Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, who became her first lover.

England at this time had been ruled by Cromwell for about 11 years, after the execution of Charles I. Playhouses were banned, as well as music of any sort, although private performances went on behind closed doors. The lands and homes of many royalist sympathizers had been seized by Cromwell and given to his generals. Barbara and her family were closet royalists, who mingled in London society with those families who worked and planned for the day that Charles II would be restored to the throne of England. The mood of the times was similar to that of the 1920's after the Great War. A number of young men had been lost either to the war or had left the country to seek their fortunes in the New World or in exile with the King. The people were tired of the deprivation and tired of Cromwell and his Puritans. Those who stayed behind amused themselves plotting Charle's return, and indulging in pursuits of the flesh.


Barbara was already married to Roger Palmer when she met Charles 1659 in Holland at the age of 19 on a diplomatic mission. She had been entrusted to bring letters and money to the King. As a woman, she would have aroused fewer suspicions. Charles at this time had spent the past 19 years on the continent, living hand to mouth, relying on royalist sympathizers for support, planning for the day when he would hopefully be restored to his rightful place on the throne of England. They immediately became lovers and when Charles returned to England in triumph, he spent his first night in London with Barbara. Barbara and the King had much in common. They had both lost father's, both were unabashed hedonists with a quick wit. More importantly, the King appreciated Barbara not only for her beauty but also her intelligence. She gave birth to her first child in early 1661, uncertain just whose child she was. Named Anne, she was claimed by both Roger Palmer and the King.

At first Barbara and the King were relatively discreet about their affair. They took care to always be in the company of his brother's the Duke of York and the Duke of Gloucester. But tongues still wagged about the King's visits to her home which was conveniently located close by the palace of Whitehall. Their relationship became more public after the birth of their first two children, particularly Charles. After his birth, Roger Palmer swept up the baby and had him baptized a Catholic. When Barbara found out she had him rebaptized Anglican in the presence of the King and her Aunt, the King publicly proclaiming the child as his own.

In 1661, her husband was created 1st Earl Castlemaine, an Irish peerage, probably to help him turn a blind eye to his wife's infidelity with the King. By this time, Roger had figured out what was going on. Although he accepted the peerage, he never took his seat in the Irish parliament and spent most of his life abroad after seperating from Barbara finally in 1662. They had been a mismatch from the start. While Barbara was vivacious with a quick wit, and an even quicker temper, Roger was a quiet, studious and bookish man, and a devoted Catholic. More than likely she married him because Chesterfield, her first lover, married another. Roger had studied law but never practiced. He had married her against his parents' wishes. His father had predicted at the time of the wedding taht she would make him one of the most miserable men on earth. They never divorced probably due to Palmer's Catholicism. He remained affectionate towards Barbara's first born, Lady Anne, to the point of appointing her one of the trustees of his will, and making her his heir.


When Charles' future queen, Catherine of Braganza arrived from Portugal in 1662, Barbara was heavily pregnant by him with her second child. She gave birth to a son on 18 June, five weeks after Catherine's arrival. Barbara desired to be appointed a Lady of the Bedchamber, which would give her an income and rooms at the Palace. However, the Queen had been warned about Barbara. When she saw her name on the list of appointees, she immediately struck it off. Barbara was naturally displeased, and the King was caught between a rock and a hard place. However, he was not a man to be thwarted by his wife. Instead he brought Barbara to be presented to the Queen at court. When Catherine discovered who she was, she fainted, blood streaming from her nose. The King was incensed by what he considered to be her stubborness. Determined to bring her around, he dismissed her Portuguese ladies, allowing the Queen to retain only a few priests and one elderly, blind attendant.

The poor Queen was left friendless and alone. The few friends that she had made at court turned from her, rather than face the King's wrath. Clarendon was forced to plead the case of the woman that he loathed to the Queen. The Queen eventually gave in, and accepted the Countess as of one of her ladies.

These were the glory years for Barbara. She was painted several times by the King's official court painter Sir Peter Lely. The images were engraved and sold like hot cakes, making Barbara one of the most well-known women in England, acknowledged as the most beautiful woman in Britain. Barbara also had a taste for politics, her house became a rendezvous point for those at court who despised the Earl of Clarendon as much as she did. She received an annual income of 4,700 pounds a year from the Post Office, and also other sums from customs and excise. She also did a brisk business taking money from those seeking to advance at court and in offices. Even the French and Italian ambassadors sought out her influence with the King.


Barbara was also extravagant. After a childhood of deprivation, she was making up for it big time. It wasn't uncommon for her to wear 30,000 pounds worth of jewelry to the theater and then to lose the same amount at the gaming tables later that night. The King deeded over the Tudor palace of Nonesuch to Barbara which she proceeded to have dismantled, the contents sold. Eventually she was unable to keep up her London residence, and was forced to sell the contents of her home at Cheam.

Still, Barbara faced rivals to her status as maitresse en titre. The first was Lady Frances Stuart. La Belle Stuart, whose visage as Britannia on the coinage of Britain lasted for centuries, was around 14 or 15 when she came to court. Charles pursued her ardently and whether through guile or just plain obliviousness, she refused to succumb, which of course, only made the King want her more. Barbara cultivated her friendship, using that old adage, 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer.' She even went so far as to have a mock wedding ceremony with Frances. Eventually, Frances realized that she would have to succumb to the King. Rumors at court suggested that she had already done so. Convinced that she was in love, she eloped with the young widowed Duke of Richmond. The King was incensed, and banned them from court. After the Duke's death, and a bout of small pox which did end up marring her beauty, Frances returned to court. By this time, the King had moved on to other mistresses, the actresses Nell Gwynn, Moll Davis and one of his sister's maids of honor, Louise de Keroualle.

She also faced enemies from within the court besides Clarendon. Her own cousin, George, 2nd Duke of Buckingham plotted against her. He was part of a faction at court that, during the Queen's serious illness, hoped to replace her with Frances Stuart if she had died. Barbara prayed like she never had before in her life for the Queen's recovery! Still there were those at court who feared and loathed her influence over the King, who famous declared that any enemy of Barbara's was an enemy of his.

Finally, she managed to bring her arch enemy Clarendon down. Despite the fact that he had been the King's trusted advisor during his year's of exile, and his daughter Anne, had married the King's brother the Duke of York, the King had finally had enough of Clarendon's puritanical attitude towards the licentious court. Push came to shove, when Clarendon was unwise as to speak out against Barbara and her meddling in politics. The King was furious and told him to turn his seal of office. Barbara had finally won. Like Nixon's enemies list, Barbara never forgot any one who had slighted her and when she had the opportunity, she took her revenge. Clarendon's mistake was that he underestimated her and the King's attachment to her, thinking her nothing but a whore, but a dangerous one. The story goes that Barbara was standing on the balcony in her nightclothes jeering at his misfortunes. Clarendon's banishment convinced Barbara that she was untouchable, and that she could do anything with the King. Once she even forced him to grovel at her feet for forgiveness in front of the entire court!

Barbara was never faithful to her royal lover. She had affairs with Henry Jermyn, the acrobat Jacob Hall and the young John Churchill (who later became Duke of Marlborough during the reign of Queen Anne). She was generous with her lovers, John Churchill was able to purchase an annuity because of her financial help. Still, the King used to visit Barbara four nights a week at her apartments in Whitehall. When her second son was born in 1663, Charles denied paternity but nevertheless gave Barbara lavish Christmas presents the same year. The couple had ferocious arguments and she was not above threatening Charles. When she was expecting another child in 1667, Barbara swore that if he denied paternity again, she would dash the infant's brains out. Barbara's power over Charles was such that he went down on his knees to be 'pardoned' for his very well-founded suspicions.

By 1674, after almost fourteen years as his mistress, Barbara found herself supplanted by Nell Gwynn and Louise de Keroualle. Ultimately, Barbara's demands were so great, her temper so fierce and her infidelities so brazen that Charles tired of her. He wanted peace, and so did the kingdom. She lost her position as Lady of the Bedchamber as a result of the 1673 Test Act, which banned all Catholics from holding office (Barbara had converted in 1663). But not before she was created Duchess of Cleveland, Baroness of Nonesuch and Countess Southampton in her own right in 1670, and before she had secured the futures of her children by Charles. He paid for lavish weddings for their daughters, Anne and Charlotte in 1674, but the people protested this latest extravagance of "The King's Whore."

Barbara left for Paris in the spring of 1677, where she formed an intrigue with the British ambassador Ralph Montagu. She also embarked on more liaisons which produced yet more children until her tally totalled seven, five of whom were claimed by the King. Her husband was not one of them.

Her children were given the surname FitzRoy, and the current Duke of Grafton, a descendant of Barbara and Charles II, still carries that surname to this day. Of her six children, Lady Anne became the Countess of Sussex, Charles FitzRoy became the Duke of Southampton and Cleveland, Henry FitzRoy, the Earl of Euston and Duke of Grafton, Charlotte married the Earl of Lichfield, George was created the Duke of Northumberland and Barbara, who may have been John Churchill's daughter, became a nun after giving birth to an illegitmate son by Charles Hamilton, the Earl of Arran.

She returned to England shortly before the King's death in 1685. After her husband's death in 1705, Barbara remarried an opportunist by the name of Major-General Charles Fielding known as Beau. The marriage was voided when it turned out that Mr. Fielding already had a wife still living. She died in 1709 after suffering from dropsy at the age of 69. But her spirit, always restless and disastisfied in life, is said not to rest and that she haunts the Mall to this day.

Further reading:

Sex with Kings - Eleanor Herman

Charles II - Antonia Fraser

Royal Harlot - Susan Holloway Scott

The Royal Whore - Allen Andrews

Lola Montez - Uncrowned Queen of Bavaria

October 1846 saw Lola heading for Bavaria, eager to put the past behind her and to earn some much needed money. Although Dujarier had left her 20,000 pounds, Lola had a lavish lifestyle. It was in Bavaria that Lola would achieve her greatest triumphs and tragedies, and pass into history as a legend.

After auditioning for the State Theatre, Lola was told her dancing might cause moral offence by the theater's manager. He'd heard rumors of her scandalous performances elsewhere. Determined to defend her reputation, and probably banking on Ludwig being taken by her allure, Lola stormed the palace unannounced to plead with the King Ludwig of Bavaria himself for help. There is a legend that Lola cut the strings of her bodice with a letter opener when the King asked her if her bosoms were real. No matter what really happened, Lola got her wish. The King agreed to let her dance and, ironically, Lola made her debut in a play called The Enchanted Prince.


At the time that they met, Lola was 25 years old and Ludwig was 60. Ludwig I (1786-1868) was responsible for turning Munich into a cultural mecca. He was the son of King Maximilian I and Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt, and one of his godfather's was Louis XVI of France. He sponsored artists, writers, craftsmen, and architects. While he was quite free with the country's money, he wasn't quite as free with spending it on his family. The occasion of his marriage to Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen in 1810 was the first ever Oktoberfest. His father had forged an alliance with Napoleon I of France, which Ludwig objected to, but he dutifully joined the Emperor's wars with the Bavarian troops. His father owed his crown to Napoleon. Maximilian was forced to consent to the marriage of Ludwig's sister Pauline to Napoleon's step-son Eugene de Beauharnais. Despite the inauspicious beginning, Pauline and Eugene ended up quite happy. Ludwig disliked and feared French political connections. He became King of Bavaria in 1825.


During the early years of his reign, Ludwig undersaw the completion of Germany's first raildroad line in 1835. He had several beautiful buildings constructed including the Walhalla Temple, modeled after the Parthenon in Greece. In his early years, his policies as King were quite liberal for the time. However, as time progressed, Ludwig's reign became more oppressive, he began to impose censorship and high taxes.


Lola's career on the Munich stage lasted a scant two performances. Ludwig became smitten by Lola, and the dancer enjoyed a new role – as his mistress. Within weeks she had a powerful hold over Ludwig. She agreed to sit for a portrait which would be included in Ludwig's renowed Gallery of Beauties, which included portraits of more than 30 women. During her sittings, Ludwig would join her, spending the time getting to know her better. He'd fallen hopelessly in love with her, and Lola claimed to return his feelings. During the next few months, the king remodeled a stately home for her, spending millions of dollars along the way.


Ludwig's advisors, friends, and family warned him that Lola was nothing but an adventuress, but the more they tried to persuade him, the more stubborn he became. He refused to believe what he considered to be lies about his Lola. Ludwig became determined to fulfill her every wish of which there were many. Lola, convinced of her own nobility, wanted a title of her own. Ludwig obliged by making her Countess of Landsfield, despite the fact that only Bavarian citizens could be enobled, and the Council of Ministers refused to grant Lola citizenship. In response, Lola convinced him to replace them with ministers who were more sympathetic. The previously pro-Catholic government was now swinging more incline with Lola's own anti-clerical, liberal positions.


It was during this period in Bavaria that Lola's animosity toward the Catholic church fermented. Although Lola's family were Irish, they were also Protestant, and her stepfather Craigie was more than likely Presbyterian. Bavaria was a very Catholic country and the Jesuits were horrified at the king's behavior and the insult to the queen. Lola had developed a long standing paranoid suspicion of the Jesuits. Whenever things went wrong for her later in life, as they often did, she would attribute this to sinister jesuitical plots.


Lola was soon to learn that being a royal mistress was not all it was cracked up to be. She hungered for social acceptance from the nobility in Munich but it was not forthcoming. Most of her admirers of course were men who sought to see advancement at court through the King's mistress. If Lola had only been more diplomatic, like Madame de Pompadour, coaching her requests with sweet nothings and a pleasing disposition, things might have been different, and her reign as Leopold's mistress might not have ended in disaster. Unfortunately, Lola was of a different temperment. She had more in common with Charles II virago of a mistress, Barbara Castlemaine. However, the days when royal mistresses could get away with raking in the coins from the royal coffers were long over.


As the people of Munich turned against Lola, she even more arrogant and demanding. On one occasion she slapped two men who objected to her relationship with Ludwig and, on another, she was trapped inside a shop by a mob after her dog attacked a passing Jesuit. Lola's final fatal mistake was when she convinced Ludwig to close down the university, after the Catholic student protests against her, ended up in a brawl between the anti-Montez students, and her own loyal group of students, social outcasts like her, called the Allemania. One student was killed in the melee. A riot ensured when Lola appeared on the scene, leading her to seek shelter in the nearby Theatinerkirche.


An irate crowd of 2,000 students gathered and made their way to city hall where a petition was presented to the King asking him to reopen the university. Ludwig refused. As hatred against her grew to a fever pitch, Ludwig's entire cabinet resigned. Lola's affair with the King had toppled the government. Lola was forced to flee the city, taking refuge in Switzerland. Ludwig was pressured into rescinding her citizenship, revoking her title, and publishing an order for her arrest. Nine days later in 1848, the King also abdicated in favor of his son Maximilian. The whole sorry affair lasted less than two years. Still the King loved Lola until he died 7 years after her death. Despite having cost him his throne, Ludwig continued to write to Lola for three years, and to send her an annual allowance of 70,000 gulden, until he was finally convinced of her infidelities while his mistress, and he cut her off.


Forced into exile, Lola finally returned to London. She was down but she was not out. Within months, she had met and married Army officer George Trafford Heald who came from a rich and distringuished family. He was seven years younger than she was. But the marriage was bigamous, although Lola was divorced from Captain James it was on the proviso that neither one was able to remarry unless the other one died. An elderly relative dug up the dirt in order to get rid of Lola, and she had to flee to France or face life behind bars. George put up the bail money for her, and followed her to the continent.

They traveled together through France, Italy and Spain, quarelling and making up incessantly. At one point, during a particularly nasty fight, she stabbed him. George and Lola quickly ran up huge gambling debts in Paris and George eventually deserted his wife in 1850. Lola, alone yet again, ended up back on the stage to help pay her bills – in America. P.T. Barnum offered to sponsor her tour, but Lola refused to be one of many of the acts in his circus. Instead, she signed with a manager named Edward Willis, who bought her story of being an improverished Spanish noblewoman. He was convinced that she would conquer America the way Columbus had once conquered it.


She arrived in New York in 1852, dressed like a man, with spurred boots and a riding whip, which she used immediately on an admirer who dared to grab onto her coat tails. Once in the States, however, the controversy began anew and Lola was forced to buy an even bigger whip – using it on impolite reporters and restless audiences. She toured the country for three years, purchasing a house in Grass Valley, Nevada where she lived in between tours. While in San Francisco, she married her third husband (again bigamous), a newspaper man by the name of Patrick Hull in 1853 in a Catholic ceremony no less, despite the fact that Lola had been raised Protestant.

They set off on a tour of the Gold Rush towns, Lola not one to travel lightly, brought along 50 trunks that contained silk drapery, gilt mirrors, as well as a stupendous wardrobe of clothes. Again the marriage didn't last, and Hull left Lola after two months of marrriage. Lola clamed in her autobiography to have been married a fourth time to a German baron. Unlucky in love, she is said to have written, "Love is a pipe we fill at eighteen and smoke until forty. Then we rake the ashes till our exit."

While living out west, Lola showed another side to her character than that of the horse-whipping femme fatale. She began to devote her time to helping out troubled women. There is a legend that she took the young Lotta Crabtree under her wing, teaching her how to dance and to command the stage. She became a model citizen of Grass Valley, much admired by the other townsfolk. She kept a menagerie of pets including a tamed grizzly bear which she took for walks.


However, after awhile, Lola needed money again. She entertained lavishly as visitors found her. She decided to go down under, to tour Australia, where she made a sensation with her Spider Dance and not in a good way. Over the years, Lola's performances had lost their sublety, and had become downright vulgar for the times. In Melbourne, when an editor had the temerity to call her performance immoral, she went after him with her whip. The Australian tour a failure, Lola was forced to lick her wounds and go home.

Once again, Lola was unlucky in love. She had fallen in love with her tour manager, Ned Fellin, who fell over board mysteriously on the voyage back to the States. When Lola was questioned about his disappearance, she said, "I have been wild, and wayward, but never wicked." Lola returned to America to present a series of literary lectures. It turned out that Lola was a formidable and eloquent lecturer, far better than she was a dancer.She even wrote several books, an autobiography, and a book called Timeless Beauty: Advice to Ladies & Gentleman.


By the year 1857, Lola's thoughts began turning toward religion, her own spiritual state, even thoughts of death. It seemed that she had become remorseful over her life. As New York sweltered in a heat wave in June 1860, however, she suffered a stroke. The condition left her unable to move or speak for several months. News of Lola's illness reached her mother, who was now Lady Craigie. She travelled to America on the pretext of seeing her daughter for what might be the last time, but it appeared that her actual purpose was to find out whether or not Lola still had any of the jewels that Ludwig had given her. but, by December, she had recovered enough to hobble outside for a breath of fresh air on Christmas Day. It was to prove the death of her. Lola developed pneumonia and, on January 17, 1861 – a month before her 40th birthday – she died. Her life quickly passed into legend.


She's buried in Green-Wood Cemetary in Brooklyn, NY. Her headstone was inscribed with a name she never used – her maiden name of Eliza Gilbert preceded by Mrs. One of her more recent biographers, Bruce Seymour, recently paid to have her grave spruced up.


Lola lived life on her terms, and sometimes she paid a high price for her reckless, adventuresome spirit. The late romance novelist Tom Huff, who wrote as Jennifer Wilde, based one of his novels on Lola Montez, called Dare to Love, a title that could apply to Lola's own life . No one could say that Lola didn't seize life with both hands and try to mold it to her will.


For further reading:

Cupid and the King - Princess Michael of Kent
Lola Montez: Her Life and Conquests - James Morton
Lola Montez: A Life - Bruce Seymour
Book of Courtesans - Susan Griffin