LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA
Lola Montez! The name suggests dark eyes and abundant hair, lithe limbsand a sinuous body, with twining hands and great eyes that gleam witha sort of ebon splendor. One thinks of Spanish beauty as one hears thename; and in truth Lola Montez justified the mental picture.
She was not altogether Spanish, yet the other elements that entered intoher mercurial nature heightened and vivified her Castilian traits.Her mother was a Spaniard--partly Moorish, however. Her father was anIrishman. There you have it--the dreamy romance of Spain, the exotictouch of the Orient, and the daring, unreasoning vivacity of the Celt.
This woman during the forty-three years of her life had adventuresinnumerable, was widely known in Europe and America, and actually lostone king his throne. Her maiden name was Marie Dolores Eliza RosannaGilbert. Her father was a British officer, the son of an Irish knight,Sir Edward Gilbert. Her mother had been a danseuse named Lola Oliver."Lola" is a diminutive of Dolores, and as "Lola" she became known to theworld.
She lived at one time or another in nearly all the countries of Europe,and likewise in India, America, and Australia. It would be impossibleto set down here all the sensations that she achieved. Let us select theclimax of her career and show how she overturned a kingdom, passing butlightly over her early and her later years.
She was born in Limerick in 1818, but her father's parents cast offtheir son and his young wife, the Spanish dancer. They went to India,and in 1825 the father died, leaving his young widow without arupee; but she was quickly married again, this time to an officer ofimportance.
The former danseuse became a very conventional person, a fit match forher highly conventional husband; but the small daughter did not takekindly to the proprieties of life. The Hindu servants taught her morethings than she should have known; and at one time her stepfather foundher performing the danse du ventre. It was the Moorish strain inheritedfrom her mother.
She was sent back to Europe, however, and had a sort of education inScotland and England, and finally in Paris, where she was detected inan incipient flirtation with her music-master. There were other personshanging about her from her fifteenth year, at which time herstepfather, in India, had arranged a marriage between her and a rich butuninteresting old judge. One of her numerous admirers told her this.
"What on earth am I to do?" asked little Lola, most naively.
"Why, marry me," said the artful adviser, who was Captain Thomas James;and so the very next day they fled to Dublin and were speedily marriedat Meath.
Lola's husband was violently in love with her, but, unfortunately,others were no less susceptible to her charms. She was presented atthe vice-regal court, and everybody there became her victim. Even theviceroy, Lord Normanby, was greatly taken with her. This nobleman'sposition was such that Captain James could not object to his attentions,though they made the husband angry to a degree. The viceroy would drawher into alcoves and engage her in flattering conversation, while poorJames could only gnaw his nails and let green-eyed jealousy prey uponhis heart. His only recourse was to take her into the country, where shespeedily became bored; and boredom is the death of love.
Later she went with Captain James to India. She endured a campaign inAfghanistan, in which she thoroughly enjoyed herself because of theattentions of the officers. On her return to London in 1842, one CaptainLennox was a fellow passenger; and their association resulted in anaction for divorce, by which she was freed from her husband, and yet bya technicality was not able to marry Lennox, whose family in any casewould probably have prevented the wedding.
Mrs. Mayne says, in writing on this point:
Even Lola never quite succeeded in being allowed to commit bigamyunmolested, though in later years she did commit it and took refuge inSpain to escape punishment.
The same writer has given a vivid picture of what happened soon afterthe divorce. Lola tried to forget her past and to create a new andbrighter future. Here is the narrative:
Her Majesty's Theater was crowded on the night of June 10,1843. A newSpanish dancer was announced--"Dona Lola Montez." It was her debut, andLumley, the manager, had been puffing her beforehand, as he alone knewhow. To Lord Ranelagh, the leader of the dilettante group of fashionableyoung men, he had whispered, mysteriously:
"I have a surprise in store. You shall see."
So Ranelagh and a party of his friends filled the omnibus boxes,those tribunes at the side of the stage whence success or failure waspronounced. Things had been done with Lumley's consummate art; thepacked house was murmurous with excitement. She was a raving beauty,said report--and then, those intoxicating Spanish dances! Taglioni,Cerito, Fanny Elssler, all were to be eclipsed.
Ranelagh's glasses were steadily leveled on the stage from themoment her entrance was imminent. She came on. There was a murmur ofadmiration--but Ranelagh made no sign. And then she began to dance.A sense of disappointment, perhaps? But she was very lovely, verygraceful, "like a flower swept by the wind, she floated round thestage"--not a dancer, but, by George, a beauty! And still Ranelagh madeno sign.
Yet, no. What low, sibilant sound is that? And then what confused, angrywords from the tribunal? He turns to his friends, his eyes ablaze withanger, opera-glass in hand. And now again the terrible "Hiss-s-s!" takenup by the other box, and the words repeated loudly and more angrilyeven than before--the historic words which sealed Lola's doom at HerMajesty's Theater: "WHY, IT'S BETTY JAMES!"
She was, indeed, Betty James, and London would not accept her as LolaMontez. She left England and appeared upon the Continent as a beautifulvirago, making a sensation--as the French would say, a succes descandale--by boxing the ears of people who offended her, and even on oneoccasion horsewhipping a policeman who was in attendance on the King ofPrussia. In Paris she tried once more to be a dancer, but Paris wouldnot have her. She betook herself to Dresden and Warsaw, where shesought to attract attention by her eccentricities, making mouths at thespectators, flinging her garters in their faces, and one time removingher skirts and still more necessary garments, whereupon her managerbroke off his engagement with her.
An English writer who heard a great deal of her and who saw her oftenabout this time writes that there was nothing wonderful about her except"her beauty and her impudence." She had no talent nor any of the graceswhich make women attractive; yet many men of talent raved about her. Theclever young journalist, Dujarrier, who assisted Emile Girardin, was herlover in Paris. He was killed in a duel and left Lola twenty thousandfrancs and some securities, so that she no longer had to sing in thestreets as she did in Warsaw.
She now betook herself to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. That countrywas then governed by Ludwig I., a king as eccentric as Lola herself. Hewas a curious compound of kindliness, ideality, and peculiar ways. Forinstance, he would never use a carriage even on state occasions. Heprowled around the streets, knocking off the hats of those whom hechanced to meet. Like his unfortunate descendant, Ludwig II., hewrote poetry, and he had a picture-gallery devoted to portraits of thebeautiful women whom he had met.
He dressed like an English fox-hunter, with a most extraordinary hat,and what was odd and peculiar in others pleased him because he was oddand peculiar himself. Therefore when Lola made her first appearance atthe Court Theater he was enchanted with her. He summoned her at once tothe palace, and within five days he presented her to the court, sayingas he did so:
"Meine Herren, I present you to my best friend."
In less than a month this curious monarch had given Lola the title ofCountess of Landsfeld. A handsome house was built for her, and a pensionof twenty thousand florins was granted her. This was in 1847. With thepeople of Munich she was unpopular. They did not mind the eccentricitiesof the king, since these amused them and did the country no perceptibleharm; but they were enraged by this beautiful woman, who had no softnesssuch as a woman ought to have. Her swearing, her readiness to box theears of every one whom she disliked, the huge bulldog which accompaniedher everywhere--all these th
ings were beyond endurance.
She was discourteous to the queen, besides meddling with the politics ofthe kingdom. Either of these things would have been sufficient tomake her hated. Together, they were more than the city of Munich couldendure. Finally the countess tried to establish a new corps in theuniversity. This was the last touch of all. A student who ventured towear her colors was beaten and arrested. Lola came to his aid with allher wonted boldness; but the city was in commotion.
Daggers were drawn; Lola was hustled and insulted. The foolish kingrushed out to protect her; and on his arm she was led in safety to thepalace. As she entered the gates she turned and fired a pistol into themob. No one was hurt, but a great rage took possession of the people.The king issued a decree closing the university for a year. By thistime, however, Munich was in possession of a mob, and the Bavariansdemanded that she should leave the country.
Ludwig faced the chamber of peers, where the demand of the populace wasplaced before him.
"I would rather lose my crown!" he replied.
The lords of Bavaria regarded him with grim silence; and in their eyeshe read the determination of his people. On the following day a royaldecree revoked Lola's rights as a subject of Bavaria, and still anotherdecree ordered her to be expelled. The mob yelled with joy and burnedher house. Poor Ludwig watched the tumult by the light of the leapingflames.
He was still in love with her and tried to keep her in the kingdom; butthe result was that Ludwig himself was forced to abdicate. He had givenhis throne for the light love of this beautiful but half-crazy woman.She would have no more to do with him; and as for him, he had to giveplace to his son Maximilian. Ludwig had lost a kingdom merely becausethis strange, outrageous creature had piqued him and made him think thatshe was unique among women.
The rest of her career was adventurous. In England she contracted abigamous marriage with a youthful officer, and within two weeks theyfled to Spain for safety from the law. Her husband was drowned, and shemade still another marriage. She visited Australia, and at Melbourne shehad a fight with a strapping woman, who clawed her face until Lolafell fainting to the ground. It is a squalid record of horse-whippings,face-scratchings--in short, a rowdy life.
Her end was like that of Becky Sharp. In America she delivered lectureswhich were written for her by a clergyman and which dealt with the artof beauty. She had a temporary success; but soon she became quitepoor, and took to piety, professing to be a sort of piteous, penitentMagdalen. In this role she made effective use of her beautiful darkhair, her pallor, and her wonderful eyes. But the violence of herdisposition had wrecked her physically; and she died of paralysis inAstoria, on Long Island, in 1861. Upon her grave in Greenwood Cemetery,Brooklyn, there is a tablet to her memory, bearing the inscription:"Mrs. Eliza Gilbert, born 1818, died 1861."
What can one say of a woman such as this? She had no morals, and hermanners were outrageous. The love she felt was the love of a she-wolf.Fourteen biographies of her have been written, besides her ownautobiography, which was called The Story of a Penitent, and which tellsless about her than any of the other books. Her beauty was undeniable.Her courage was the blended courage of the Celt, the Spaniard, and theMoor. Yet all that one can say of her was said by the elder Dumas whenhe declared that she was born to be the evil genius of every one whocared for her. Her greatest fame comes from the fact that in less thanthree years she overturned a kingdom and lost a king his throne.