Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Lola Montes is getting a quick name drop
Speaker 1: in an upcoming episode, so we're bringing our episode on
Speaker 1: her out for the folks who might say, wait, who
Speaker 1: is that? Though this episode originally came out June fourteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, so enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm a
Speaker 1: Holly Frye listener. Rebecca sent us a note on Instagram
Speaker 1: recently suggesting an episode on Lola Montes and I thought, Hey,
Speaker 1: I remember her, because way back in twenty ten, previous
Speaker 1: hosts Katie and Sarah did a podcast on Ludwig the
Speaker 1: Second of Bavaria. We ran that as a Saturday classic
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, and in that episode, Katie and Sarah
Speaker 1: talk about Lude the Second's grandfather, Ludvig the First and
Speaker 1: his scandalous relationship with this Lola Montes. I even remembered
Speaker 1: that Katie described her as a trip and said they
Speaker 1: were going to need to cover her on the show
Speaker 1: at at some point. Now it's been more than a
Speaker 1: decade since prior hosts of the show, who do not
Speaker 1: even work here anymore. They were probably going to do
Speaker 1: an episode on this subject. We've had other requests for
Speaker 1: Lola Montes in addition to Rebecca's. I found some contradictory
Speaker 1: advice about whether people said Montes with the accent on
Speaker 1: the first syllable or the second. I don't know which
Speaker 1: is right. So we're just gonna say Lola Montes. There
Speaker 1: you go. And Lola Montes is one of those figures
Speaker 1: whose life is quite hard to pin down, not because
Speaker 1: of a lack of documentation, but because that documentation repeats
Speaker 1: the completely fictional backstory they made up for themselves. In
Speaker 1: the words of historian Ralph Friedman, quote, much of this
Speaker 1: confusion can be traced to Lola herself. She changed her
Speaker 1: background to suit the occasion, and there were many occasions
Speaker 1: to suit. In her adult life, Lola Montes presented herself
Speaker 1: as a Spanish dancer that was very exotic and enticing
Speaker 1: in the eyes of the audiences and a lot of
Speaker 1: the places she performed. In her autobiography, she said she
Speaker 1: was descended from Count de Montalvo of Spain and had
Speaker 1: Moorish ancestry, but had been born in Limerick. As Marie
Speaker 1: Delores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert. She said her family had always
Speaker 1: called her Dolores or Lola for short, and she told
Speaker 1: King Ludwig the First of Bavaria that she had been
Speaker 1: born on February fourteenth, eighteen twenty. None of that's true.
Speaker 1: According to her baptismal certificate, she was born in Grange,
Speaker 1: about one hundred and fifty five miles or two hundred
Speaker 1: fifty kilometers north of Limerick. That was on February seventeenth,
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty one. One. That to me is like the
Speaker 1: big thing of like what a weird shift of a
Speaker 1: few days one year, a few days off of the
Speaker 1: date and a year where it just is a strange thing.
Speaker 1: She was named Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert after her mother, who
Speaker 1: went by Eliza. That nickname, not Lola, is all over
Speaker 1: family and school records. So although both these Elizabeths went
Speaker 1: by Eliza in this first part of the episode, we're
Speaker 1: going to call her mother Elizabeth in the future Lola
Speaker 1: Montes Eliza for the sake of clarity. Elizabeth was the
Speaker 1: daughter of Charles Silver Oliver, who was a member of parliament.
Speaker 1: Charles had four children with Elizabeth's mother before marrying an heiress,
Speaker 1: and although he did not legally acknowledge these four children
Speaker 1: or marry their mother, he did provide them with some
Speaker 1: financial support set them up with jobs as they got older.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth trained as the assistant to a milliner, and then
Speaker 1: she married British Army officer Edward Gilbert. About ten months later,
Speaker 1: they had Eliza. In eighteen twenty three, when Eliza was
Speaker 1: about two, Gilbert took the family to British India with
Speaker 1: the hope of earning more money and climbing the military ranks,
Speaker 1: but not long after they arrived, he contracted cholera and died.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was still in her late teens and at this
Speaker 1: point had a young daughter to support, so she got
Speaker 1: remarried pretty quickly to Lieutenant Patrick Craigie. Eliza didn't really
Speaker 1: have a lot of structure or supervision in India, and
Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty six, when she was about five, Elizabeth
Speaker 1: and Patrick sent her to live with his parents in
Speaker 1: Scotland with the hope that they could raise her into
Speaker 1: a proper young woman. Eventually, Eliza was enrolled at Aldridge
Speaker 1: Academy in Bath, where she stayed for about five years.
Speaker 1: She developed a reputation for being spirited and stubborn, and
Speaker 1: kind of different from her peers who were raised in Britain.
Speaker 1: She would later claim that the character of Becky Sharp
Speaker 1: and William Thackeray's Vanited was based on her and her
Speaker 1: time in Bath. She's made lots of claims. In eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty seven, when Eliza was sixteen, Elizabeth returned from India.
Speaker 1: Army officer Thomas James, who was on convalescent leave, had
Speaker 1: accompanied her during the sea voyage an Elizabeth's reunion with
Speaker 1: Eliza did not go particularly well. They hadn't seen each
Speaker 1: other in more than a decade at that point, and
Speaker 1: one of Elizabeth's objectives was to prepare Eliza to get married.
Speaker 1: Eliza claimed that her mother was planning to marry her
Speaker 1: off to a widowed army officer who was in his sixties.
Speaker 1: There's not really any documentation on who this might have been,
Speaker 1: but the most likely candidate would be Patrick Craigie's commanding officer,
Speaker 1: although he also had unmarried sons who were way closer
Speaker 1: to Eliza's age, so it's possible that she either misunderstood
Speaker 1: her mother's intent or deliberately misconstrued all this to make
Speaker 1: the story more shocking. There's several possible options there, all
Speaker 1: of which have a level of possibility and also a
Speaker 1: level of problems. Yeah, Eliza turned to her mother's escort,
Speaker 1: Thomas James, for help. He was in his early thirties,
Speaker 1: and in her account, she saw him as something of
Speaker 1: a father figure. On July twenty third, eighteen thirty seven,
Speaker 1: the two of them eloped, with James's brother, who was
Speaker 1: a vicar officiating the wedding. This was really not a
Speaker 1: happy marriage. Thomas was about twice Eliza's age, and she
Speaker 1: seemed to have believed that he had married her solely
Speaker 1: to protect her from being married off to somebody who
Speaker 1: was twice as old as that. But it quickly became
Speaker 1: clear that he was expecting her to fulfill all the
Speaker 1: duties of a wife, and he also may have been
Speaker 1: abusive to her. When Thomas returned to India, he took
Speaker 1: Eliza with him. He was stationed at a remote garrison,
Speaker 1: where she didn't have much opportunity for his social life,
Speaker 1: and where she probably also contracted malaye. She had recurring
Speaker 1: illness for the rest of her life. Her happiest moments
Speaker 1: in India were probably when she and her mother visited
Speaker 1: a resort town at the foot of the Himalayas. Eventually
Speaker 1: Eliza left Thomas. At first she tried to take refuge
Speaker 1: with her mother, but Elizabeth really gave her a choice
Speaker 1: of either going back to her husband or going back
Speaker 1: to Britain. Eliza chose the latter, with the understanding that
Speaker 1: she would once again live with the Craigies. Eliza was
Speaker 1: about twenty when she left India, and on the ship
Speaker 1: back to the UK, she struck up a relationship with
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Charles Lennox, nephew of the Duke of Richmond. It
Speaker 1: would have been hard to keep a romance secret on
Speaker 1: board a ship, but they didn't really try. They were
Speaker 1: not discreet about this at all, and once they got
Speaker 1: back to Britain, Eliza decided to stay in London rather
Speaker 1: than go live with the Craigies, and word about her
Speaker 1: infidelity quickly made its way back to India. Thomas sued
Speaker 1: Eliza for divorce on the grounds of adultery, and he
Speaker 1: also sued Charles Lenni ex for damages, and there was
Speaker 1: really no question about what had happened. Like the is,
Speaker 1: there are letters written by other passengers who describe like
Speaker 1: walking past her stateroom with the door open and clearly
Speaker 1: for everyone to see what was happening between the two
Speaker 1: of them. Divorces at this point were handled in ecclesiastical court,
Speaker 1: and while Thomas's divorce was ultimately granted, the judgment also
Speaker 1: specified that neither he nor Eliza could ever remarry while
Speaker 1: the other one was still alive. And at this point,
Speaker 1: the only way a divorce person in Britain could get
Speaker 1: the right to remarry while their former spouse was still
Speaker 1: living was through an Act of Parliament. So obviously that
Speaker 1: required a lot of political connections and a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So this was a huge scandal for Eliza and a
Speaker 1: gigantic blot on her reputation. Marriage was the expected life
Speaker 1: for a woman like her, but she was legally barred
Speaker 1: from remarrying that divorcement. She wasn't considered appropriate for any
Speaker 1: respectable work that might have been open to her. While
Speaker 1: the people around her probably would have preferred she find
Speaker 1: a sympathetic friend or a family member to stay with
Speaker 1: and live out her days in quiet shame, she refused
Speaker 1: to play by those rules. Eliza was pretty and vivacious
Speaker 1: and clever, and she used that to support herself through
Speaker 1: the generosity of interested men. It's likely that one of
Speaker 1: these men funded a trip to Spain for her. Some
Speaker 1: sources credit the Earl of Malmsbury, but in his account
Speaker 1: he says he did not meet her until afterward, so
Speaker 1: regardless of who paid for this trip, while she was
Speaker 1: in Spain, she learned some Spanish and some Spanish style dance,
Speaker 1: and a little bit about Spanish culture and customs. And
Speaker 1: when she returned to England it was not as Eliza.
Speaker 1: It was as Maria Dolores de Poris in Montez, better
Speaker 1: known as Lola, and we're going to talk more about
Speaker 1: that after we paused for a break. Lola Montes made
Speaker 1: her stage debut in London on June third, eighteen forty three.
Speaker 1: She performed a dance that was billed as El Olano
Speaker 1: during the act break of a sold out performance of
Speaker 1: The Barber of Seville, and reviewers described her as quote
Speaker 1: the perfection of Spanish beauty. She was in a brightly
Speaker 1: colored dress with a black bodice and doing a novel
Speaker 1: dance with castanettes that seemed like a panamime of quote
Speaker 1: some saucy fancy, including quote stamping pettishly with her foot. However,
Speaker 1: someone recognized Lola Montes as Eliza Gilbert. Words started to spread,
Speaker 1: and Montes claimed her mother heard about it and printed
Speaker 1: up death notices for her. On June twelfth, the London
Speaker 1: Morning Post printed an excerpt of a letter from Montes
Speaker 1: saying she had been born in Seville and had learned
Speaker 1: English from an Irish nurse. She said she had never
Speaker 1: been in England except for a few months spent living
Speaker 1: with a Catholic woman in Bath, and had never seen
Speaker 1: London before she arrived for her performance. Not long after that, though,
Speaker 1: Lola Montes left England for the continent, where she was
Speaker 1: less likely to be recognized. In Berlin, a critic described
Speaker 1: her performance this way, quote, her beauty of rare voluptuous
Speaker 1: fullness is beyond any criticism. Her dancing, however, was no
Speaker 1: dancing at all, but a physical invitation. If it is
Speaker 1: said of Taglioni that she writes world history with her feet,
Speaker 1: so it can be said of Donna Montes that she
Speaker 1: writes Casanova's memoirs with her whole body. In Berlin, Montes
Speaker 1: performed for King Frederick William of Prussia and his guest
Speaker 1: Zar Nicholas the first. She also had one of her
Speaker 1: first and most famous run ins with authority. While the
Speaker 1: monarch were reviewing the troops, Montes tried to ride her
Speaker 1: horse into an area that was reserved for military personnel.
Speaker 1: When an officer tried to stop her, she struck him
Speaker 1: with her horsewhip. A lot of the retellings of this
Speaker 1: whole incident really make Montes sound like a wacky little
Speaker 1: firebrand in this moment. But she was charged with assault,
Speaker 1: and then when she tore up her summons for that charge,
Speaker 1: she was charged with contempt. It does not seem like
Speaker 1: either of these charges ever went to trial. Though, please
Speaker 1: don't hit people with a horsewhip. There's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot more of that in this episode, Please don't, Please don't.
Speaker 1: From there, Montes went to Dresden, where she met past
Speaker 1: podcast subject From's List. Her autobiography, which is written in
Speaker 1: the third person, describes it this way quote through the
Speaker 1: management of influential friends, an opening was made for her
Speaker 1: at the Royal Theater at Dresden in Saxony, where she
Speaker 1: first met the celebrated pianist frownz List, who was then
Speaker 1: creating such a furre in Dresden that when he dropped
Speaker 1: his pocket handkerchief. It was seized by the ladies and
Speaker 1: torn into rags, which they divided among themselves, each being
Speaker 1: but too happy to get so much as a rag
Speaker 1: which had belonged to the great artist. The furor created
Speaker 1: by Lola Montes's appearance at the theater in Dresden was
Speaker 1: quite as great among the gentlemen as was Lists among
Speaker 1: the ladies. As Montes traveled with Lists, she met other
Speaker 1: prominent people, including Rickard Wagner, who did not like her
Speaker 1: much at all. The tracks, Yeah, Wagner generally disliked all
Speaker 1: the sort of groupies who were always surrounding Fran's List.
Speaker 1: We talked about that whole phenomenon in the Liz Domania episode.
Speaker 1: He called Montes a quote heartless, demonic being, and Liszt
Speaker 1: is rumored to have gotten tired of her as well,
Speaker 1: locking her in a hotel room and paying the hotel
Speaker 1: staff to keep her there just so he could escape.
Speaker 1: There isn't any subtantiation for that story, though, and it
Speaker 1: seems a little far fetched considering that they met up
Speaker 1: later in Paris. He also gave her letters of introduction
Speaker 1: and arranged her debut at the Paris Opera in eighteen
Speaker 1: forty four, which was incredible considering that her entire stage
Speaker 1: career had involved twenty or so performances total at that
Speaker 1: point over the course of roughly a year. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: Paris Opera was like one of the most exclusive stages
Speaker 1: in Europe, and here comes Lola Montes who's been performing
Speaker 1: in act breaks of other shows for the course of
Speaker 1: like twenty performances. Audiences in Paris were skeptical of her.
Speaker 1: Reviewers noted that Lola Montes could not dance, did not
Speaker 1: speak Spanish very well, didn't look Spanish, and had a
Speaker 1: terrible reputation for violence. One French critic gave this backhanded
Speaker 1: praise to her quote, there is something lasciviously attractive, voluptuously
Speaker 1: enticing in the poses she takes, and then she a pretty,
Speaker 1: very pretty, extremely pretty person, and she throws you kisses
Speaker 1: so complete that you applaud at once, only to ask
Speaker 1: yourself afterwards if it was right or wrong to applaud.
Speaker 1: Is that not the most French criticism you can imagine
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, she's very lovely in the moment, but
Speaker 1: then you second guess yourself. In Paris, Montes met another
Speaker 1: past podcast subject that was Alexandre Dumpire, but then she
Speaker 1: fell in love with Alexandra Andre Dujarier, who was part
Speaker 1: owner of the newspaper La Presse. They planned to marry,
Speaker 1: but Dujarier was killed in a duel in March of
Speaker 1: eighteen forty five. This duel, we should point out, had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Lola. It was over a gambling
Speaker 1: debt that he owed to journalist Jean Baptiste Rosemond de Beauvallon,
Speaker 1: compounded by his perceived rudeness on the night that he
Speaker 1: racked up that debt. Montes had offered to teach Dujarier
Speaker 1: to shoot a pistol when she learned that there might
Speaker 1: be a duel, but he had turned her down. She
Speaker 1: was terrified over this whole prospect. She was like, you
Speaker 1: don't know how to use a gun and this man
Speaker 1: is going to duel you. Please let me help, and
Speaker 1: he was like, no, I got it. He didn't have it.
Speaker 1: Though Montes left Paris after Dejarier's death, she had to
Speaker 1: return to testify at Bouvillon's murder trial. Other witnesses at
Speaker 1: that trial included both Alexandre Duma p Pere and Feists
Speaker 1: French courts didn't typically convict people of murder if the
Speaker 1: killing had happened during a duel, as long as the
Speaker 1: rules of dueling had been followed, and Bouvillon was acquitted.
Speaker 1: In eighteen forty six, Montes moved to Munich, where she
Speaker 1: met Ludwig, King of Bavaria. She was twenty five at
Speaker 1: this point and he was sixty and deeply enamored with
Speaker 1: all things Spain, and in what's probably an apocryphal story,
Speaker 1: Ludwig's first words to her were to point at her
Speaker 1: chest and say nature or art, grabbed some scissors from
Speaker 1: his desk, cut open the bodice of her dress, and
Speaker 1: showed him. Although this story probably is not true, Lola
Speaker 1: Montes had an incredibly dramatic and often extremely scandalous relationship
Speaker 1: with the King of Bavaria for about eighteen months. He
Speaker 1: commissioned her portrait for his Gallery of Beauties, which, as
Speaker 1: its name suggests, was a gallery of portraits of the
Speaker 1: most beautiful women he had ever met. He called her
Speaker 1: Lolita and set her up in a luxurious home, buying
Speaker 1: the property in her name so that she could be
Speaker 1: eligible for Bavarian citizenship. He granted her an allowance of
Speaker 1: ten thousand florins a year at a time when his
Speaker 1: cabinet ministers are making more like six thousand florins. The
Speaker 1: king kept a lot of this secret, but there was
Speaker 1: really no way to disguise his total infatuation with her
Speaker 1: or her influence over him. She publicly boasted about how
Speaker 1: much sway she had, including bragging about convincing the king
Speaker 1: to raise teachers pay a week before he was going
Speaker 1: to announce it publicly. He was enamored with her feet,
Speaker 1: and she gave him an alabaster model of one of them.
Speaker 1: When he wrote to thank her for it, he said
Speaker 1: he had quote covered it with fervent kisses. He later
Speaker 1: gave her an alabaster model of his hand writing a
Speaker 1: poem that was carved by the same sculptor. Meanwhile, Montes
Speaker 1: was launching one scandal after another. Her behavior was just
Speaker 1: not appropriate for somebody considered to be the king's favorite.
Speaker 1: She entertained male visitors at all hours. Once, when a
Speaker 1: man stood her up, she went to his apartment building
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night to find him. She
Speaker 1: didn't know which unit that he lived in, so she
Speaker 1: rang the bell for everyone, waking up the entire building.
Speaker 1: And basically advertising that she was there for a late
Speaker 1: night rendezvous with a man. I want to say who
Speaker 1: among us, but most of us have not. I would
Speaker 1: hope uh. The Alamanan were a sort of fraternity at
Speaker 1: Ludwig maximil University of Munich, and they became her bodyguard.
Speaker 1: One night during a drunken party at her home, the
Speaker 1: Alimanin were parading around dressed only in their shirts, carrying
Speaker 1: Lola on their shoulders. When one of them ran her
Speaker 1: into a low hanging chandelier, she got a concussion. She
Speaker 1: also repeatedly got into physical confrontations with people, and this
Speaker 1: was something that carried additional risks for her since she
Speaker 1: wasn't a Bavarian citizen, like just go pick a bunch
Speaker 1: of fies of people, maybe get deported. To deflect criticism,
Speaker 1: she maintained that her enemies, especially Jesuits, were spreading lies
Speaker 1: about her, even though her Spanish persona included pretending to
Speaker 1: be Catholic. She frequently maintained that she was a victim
Speaker 1: of just a massive Jesuit conspiracy against her. The King's
Speaker 1: advisors tried to persuade him to distance himself from her.
Speaker 1: When that didn't work, and Lola's behavior seemed to just
Speaker 1: get even more over the top advisor and cabinet members
Speaker 1: started resigning in protest. Montes took particular delight when the
Speaker 1: people resigning were conservative Catholics. When Ludwig named Lola Countess
Speaker 1: of Landsfield, which came with citizenship and a permanent income,
Speaker 1: his entire cabinet resigned. Although Lola was extremely good at
Speaker 1: convincing Ludwig that these indiscretions were just rumors and that
Speaker 1: she loved only him, while also reminding him of how
Speaker 1: much he loved her, all of this made the king
Speaker 1: incredibly anxious. He was under so much stress that he
Speaker 1: broke out in what sounds like hives. And all of
Speaker 1: this happened alongside social and political unrest in Bavaria, including
Speaker 1: intense disputes between conservative Catholic and more liberal Republican factions
Speaker 1: at the university. This was compounded by Lola's scandalous association
Speaker 1: with the Alamanin. In the hope of getting things under control,
Speaker 1: Ludwig tried to shut the university down. This had worked
Speaker 1: to quell descent in the past, but in this case
Speaker 1: it just made everything worse. Public opinion about Lola Montes
Speaker 1: waxed and waned in Bavaria, but by early eighteen forty
Speaker 1: eight people were outraged that this notorious woman, who was
Speaker 1: not even from there and who got into fights and
Speaker 1: had indiscreet affairs with multiple men, had such a huge
Speaker 1: influence on the king. In February of eighteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: thousands of people took to the streets and Lola Montes
Speaker 1: was driven out of Munich by a mob. Ludwig considered
Speaker 1: sending in the army to restore order, but his minister
Speaker 1: of war said that if he was ordered to do so,
Speaker 1: he would excuse himself, go into the next room and
Speaker 1: take his own life. On March twentieth, eighteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: so not long after she was run out of town,
Speaker 1: Ludwig the First abdicated and was succeeded by his son
Speaker 1: Maximilian the Second, and sometimes Lola Montes as described as
Speaker 1: being the one who convinced him to step down, while
Speaker 1: she definitely encouraged him to abdicate. After her departure, Ludwig
Speaker 1: really started to question his own judgment and what his
Speaker 1: entanglement with her said about his abilities as king. He
Speaker 1: was also just under a huge amount of pressure from
Speaker 1: conservative Catholic elements of the nobility, the conservative faction at
Speaker 1: the university. There was a lot going on besides just
Speaker 1: her telling him that she thought he should step down.
Speaker 1: Lola surrendered her Bavarian naturalization certificate, saying that she never
Speaker 1: wanted to return. Then she went to London and tried
Speaker 1: to plan a trip to Spain. This was complicated by
Speaker 1: the fact that she was passing herself off as Spanish,
Speaker 1: but she had no Spanish passport. She refused to reveal
Speaker 1: who she really was in order to get a British one,
Speaker 1: and although Ludwig was sending her money, he refused to
Speaker 1: pull strings to get her a Bavarian passport. Then something
Speaker 1: happened that resolved all of this. She married twenty one
Speaker 1: year old Coronet George Trafford Healed, which made her eligible
Speaker 1: for a British passport without disclosing her real identity. Since
Speaker 1: she was pretending to be Catholic. They had both Catholic
Speaker 1: and Church of England ceremonies. Ludwig had granted Lola a
Speaker 1: pension under the condition that she never marry. She wrote
Speaker 1: to tell him that she was considering marriage, but that
Speaker 1: her husband to be had such a modest income that
Speaker 1: she should be allowed to keep her pension. This was not,
Speaker 1: in fact true. Healed was pretty comfortable, and when Ludwig
Speaker 1: realized Lola had already gotten married before he could even
Speaker 1: answer her letter, he was outraged. Another person who was
Speaker 1: outraged was George's aunt, who did not trust Lola at
Speaker 1: all and looked into her background, and it did not
Speaker 1: take long to figure out that she was really divorcee
Speaker 1: Eliza Gilbert, who could not marry while her ex husband
Speaker 1: was still living. So Lola was charged with bigamy and
Speaker 1: released on bail, and she and George went ahead with
Speaker 1: their trip to Spain. They came back to London just
Speaker 1: the head of her trial. Authorities had confirmed that James
Speaker 1: was still living as of June thirteenth, but that wedding
Speaker 1: had happened on July nineteenth, so Montez hoped to argue
Speaker 1: that it was possible that he had died within that
Speaker 1: few weeks, but while she was in Spain it had
Speaker 1: been confirmed that Thomas James was alive on her wedding day.
Speaker 1: A conviction for bigamy seemed inevitable, so she forfeited her
Speaker 1: bail and she and George fled to France. This whole
Speaker 1: scandal just added to Lola's infamy. This also wasn't really
Speaker 1: what George had signed up for, even by marrying someone
Speaker 1: as notorious as Lola Montes. He left Lola at a
Speaker 1: couple of different points, and then in eighteen fifty when
Speaker 1: he left her for good, he took a lot of
Speaker 1: her possessions along with his own, and this included her
Speaker 1: alabaster model of Ludwig's hand and her Bavarian certificate of
Speaker 1: nobility and Ludwig's letters to her. Lola's correspondence with Ludwig
Speaker 1: ended about a year later, which was also the life
Speaker 1: last year that he sent her money. At one point,
Speaker 1: either Lola or George, or maybe both, tried to extort
Speaker 1: money from him by threatening to publish his very explicit
Speaker 1: letters to her. In the end, those letters were returned
Speaker 1: to the former monarch. Lola needed money, though, and in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one she published an autobiography. She also met
Speaker 1: a promoter who suggested she'd take a US tour. She
Speaker 1: signed a contract with a manager for a series of
Speaker 1: appearances in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, although she dumped
Speaker 1: that manager and those plans before even finishing the European
Speaker 1: leg of what they had arranged, But she did plan
Speaker 1: to go to the US, and she set sale at
Speaker 1: the US in November of eighteen fifty one. And we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that after we have a sponsor break. By
Speaker 1: the time Lola Montes was preparing for her US tour,
Speaker 1: she was intern new nationally infamous. While reporting on rumors
Speaker 1: that P. T. Barnum had hired her, the Brooklyn Daily
Speaker 1: Eagle described her as quote quite a celebrity among the
Speaker 1: profligates of Europe. On September twenty sixth, eighteen fifty one,
Speaker 1: The New York Times had this to say, quote, we
Speaker 1: shall be sadly disappointed if this creature has any degree
Speaker 1: of success in the United States. She has no special
Speaker 1: reputation as a dancer. She is known to the world
Speaker 1: only as a shameless and abandoned woman. If such a
Speaker 1: reputation shall prove attractive in this country, we have greatly
Speaker 1: mistaken its character. Oh whoever wrote that, I hope they
Speaker 1: never time travel Now I had the same thought. Oh,
Speaker 1: oh friend. Most of Lola's performances in Europe had been
Speaker 1: dances during the act breaks of other works, but her
Speaker 1: US tour was built on much longer appearances. She commissioned
Speaker 1: a play called Lola Montes in Bavaria, in which she,
Speaker 1: of course played herself. The text of this play has
Speaker 1: been lost, but it presented Montes as introducing all kinds
Speaker 1: of liberal advances to Bavaria before fleeing in the wake
Speaker 1: of a counter revolution. Yeah, a lot of the accounts
Speaker 1: of how much how much liberalizing influence she had over
Speaker 1: the king seems to have come from people interpreting descriptions
Speaker 1: of this play as being definitely grounded in reality, maybe somewhat,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's she. This was both a touring piece
Speaker 1: for her and self promotion. Montees had reworked her Spanish
Speaker 1: inspired dance at several points over the years, and she
Speaker 1: had picked up new styles. A suggestive pantomime involving stomping
Speaker 1: on a spider seems to have been there from the
Speaker 1: very beginning. I mean that first review doesn't give a
Speaker 1: play by play of what she was doing, but there's
Speaker 1: this whole like sauciness and stamping pettishly in the description.
Speaker 1: It was really in the United States, though, that her
Speaker 1: most famous dance became known as the Spider Dance and
Speaker 1: also gained a reputation for being absolutely scandalous, so this
Speaker 1: pantomime hinged on the idea that a spider was crawling
Speaker 1: into Lola's dress. Audiences would see flashes of her skin
Speaker 1: as she tried to get rid of the spider, although
Speaker 1: exactly how much skin and how much she was wearing
Speaker 1: under her skirts kind of depends on which account you read.
Speaker 1: Newspapers in the US started describing this as indecent, which
Speaker 1: prompted Montez to write angry letters to their editors, while
Speaker 1: also making the dance even more risky. Lola, Montes and
Speaker 1: Bavaria ran on Broadway, and then she toured around the
Speaker 1: eastern part of North America. Her last stop was in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, and while she was there, she got into
Speaker 1: a dispute with her lady's maid. Her lady's maid had
Speaker 1: decided she wanted to stay in New Orleans and leave
Speaker 1: Lola's service. Lola struck her, and when the police arrived
Speaker 1: to arrest Lola for battery, she drew her dagger and
Speaker 1: tried to fight them before drinking the contents of a
Speaker 1: vial that was labeled as poison, so something that she
Speaker 1: said she always carried on her person in case she
Speaker 1: needed to escape a truly impossible situation, but she miraculously recovered.
Speaker 1: There are many ways to interpret this, and the one
Speaker 1: I'm sticking with is that she had a fake poison
Speaker 1: vile to be dramatic. Uh huh, it's probably full of
Speaker 1: sugar water. In eighteen fifty three, Montes left New Orleans
Speaker 1: bound for San Francisco by sea, with a land crossing
Speaker 1: in Panama. Along the way, she met newspaper editor Patrick
Speaker 1: Purdy Hull, and they married about six weeks after arriving
Speaker 1: in California. This marriage was stormy and brief. At one point,
Speaker 1: Lola threw all of his possessions out a hotel window,
Speaker 1: and not long after that she threw him out of
Speaker 1: the home she had bought in Grass Valley. There are
Speaker 1: also that a German doctor who was named in the
Speaker 1: divorce suit was mysteriously shot. All of that is a
Speaker 1: little bit murky, since its unclear whether divorce papers were
Speaker 1: ever actually filed. Montes had become tired of quote splendor
Speaker 1: and fast living, and she's spent about the next two
Speaker 1: years living in Grass Valley. Before this, she'd always had
Speaker 1: a lapdog, but now she indulged her love of animals,
Speaker 1: with a personal menagerie that included a parrot, two dogs,
Speaker 1: and a grizzly bear cub. Really, grizzly bear cubs do
Speaker 1: not make good pets, and after this one mauled her,
Speaker 1: she put it up for sale. I'm sure that bear
Speaker 1: is long gone, but I worry for it just the
Speaker 1: same me too. I could not figure out the ultimate
Speaker 1: fate of the bear. Oh, I know how that stuff goes.
Speaker 1: In Grass Valley, Montes doted on her neighbor's children, including
Speaker 1: a lot of crabtree, who Lola encouraged in her acting
Speaker 1: and dancing. She also started studying spiritualism and reading the Bible.
Speaker 1: This time was not all harmonious, though. When the Grass
Speaker 1: Valley Telegraph criticized a dancer who she knew, Lola whipped
Speaker 1: its editor, Henry Shipley, in the street. In eighteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: Montes decided to tour Australia. She hired Noel Fallen, who
Speaker 1: used the stage name Noel fall End with a d
Speaker 1: as a manager. He was estranged from his wife and
Speaker 1: children in New York, but he was financially supporting them.
Speaker 1: Montes performed to full houses in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide,
Speaker 1: and she appeared on stage around Australia's gold fields, where
Speaker 1: she encouraged her audiences to tip her by tossing gold
Speaker 1: nuggets at her. This tour was just as full of
Speaker 1: drama and strife as all of her earlier tours had been.
Speaker 1: Various parties tried to shut down her shows for their indecency.
Speaker 1: In Melbourne, she had a running feud with the Reverend
Speaker 1: John Lawrence Milton after the baler at times ran an
Speaker 1: unflattering letter about her. She got into a fight with
Speaker 1: editor Henry Seacamp, with the two of them whipping each
Speaker 1: other until onlookers physically separated them. Did everyone carry a whip? Well,
Speaker 1: she did like to ride and was reportedly a very
Speaker 1: good rider, and apparently Henry Seacamp also equipped with a whip. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people who rode horses had
Speaker 1: horsewhips with them. Montes experienced recurring illnesses throughout her life.
Speaker 1: Like we said earlier, she probably got malaria while she
Speaker 1: was in India, and she was sick a lot. While
Speaker 1: in Australia. She started describing her spider dance as involving
Speaker 1: being bitten by the spider to explain away any swooning
Speaker 1: or fatigue that she showed on stage. Eventually, she cut
Speaker 1: the tour short and she disbanded the company that had
Speaker 1: traveled with her from California. Their contracts had included passage
Speaker 1: back to the United States, so the actors tried to
Speaker 1: take her to court. When the authorities try to arrest her,
Speaker 1: she argued that their warrant was not in her real name,
Speaker 1: and because she was married, legal action also had to
Speaker 1: go through her husband. This was an argument that she
Speaker 1: made more than once. When somebody, would, you know, offer
Speaker 1: give her a summons that said Lola Montes, She'd be like, Ah,
Speaker 1: that's not my name though, so that's not valid. Then
Speaker 1: she left town, basically leaving her performers with no recourse.
Speaker 1: Montes and Fallen left for the US in May of
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty five. Their ship back to San Francisco stopped
Speaker 1: in Hawaii, and shortly after setting sail again, Noel Fallen
Speaker 1: fell overboard and drowned. It's not clear exactly what happened,
Speaker 1: but Montes blamed herself for his death. She personally notified
Speaker 1: his family and tried to support them financially, including selling
Speaker 1: her jewelry and property. She owned in San Francisco to
Speaker 1: send them the proceeds with the note that she wanted
Speaker 1: his children to be educated in Spa spiritualism. Around the
Speaker 1: same time, Montes also learned that George Healed had died.
Speaker 1: She became more focused on spiritualism and she joined the
Speaker 1: Episcopal Church. After making one last visit to Grass Valley,
Speaker 1: she sold her property there and then did another brief
Speaker 1: tour of the East Coast, performing Lola Montes in Bavaria
Speaker 1: again and also visiting Nolfallen's stepmother. In eighteen fifty seven,
Speaker 1: at the age of thirty six, Lola Montes changed directions
Speaker 1: and became a lecturer. While she still went by the
Speaker 1: name Lola Montes, she mostly dropped the pretense that she
Speaker 1: was Spanish and Catholic. Her lecture, titled Gallantry, was about
Speaker 1: the gallantry of men, including King Ludwig. The First Wits
Speaker 1: and Women of Paris, was a tour of notable people
Speaker 1: she had met in Paris, including Alexandra Dumatpier and George
Speaker 1: sand Romanism was a vehement condemnation of the Catholic Church.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people described Montes as an early feminist, but her
Speaker 1: lecture heroines and strong minded women of history makes it
Speaker 1: clear that she did not have a high opinion of feminism.
Speaker 1: It's at least feminism in terms of how she saw
Speaker 1: it in the nineteenth century world. She described suffragists and
Speaker 1: activists for women's rights as scolds and convention women, before
Speaker 1: walking through historical examples of women, warriors and monarchs, who
Speaker 1: she saw as real examples of women's strengths, not those
Speaker 1: complainers who were having conventions to say how victimized they were.
Speaker 1: Montesa's first book was a collection of these lectures, along
Speaker 1: with an autobiography. And this autobiography is kind of weird.
Speaker 1: We mentioned before. It's written in the third person, it's
Speaker 1: sometimes credited to Charles Chauncey Burr, and often it's actually
Speaker 1: not flattering of her at all. At times she has
Speaker 1: depicted almost as a child, throwing tantrums to get her
Speaker 1: way among wealthy and powerful men. And when I read it,
Speaker 1: I was like, who who wrote this? And why did
Speaker 1: they hate you? I mean, I can see many reasons
Speaker 1: why somebody would have a negative impression of Lola Montes,
Speaker 1: but I was like, this is your autobiography in your book,
Speaker 1: and it is making you sound like a petulant like
Speaker 1: Immature Terror. Montes published two other books after that lecture collection.
Speaker 1: They were The Arts of Beauty or Secrets of a
Speaker 1: Lady's Toilet with Hints to Gentlemen on the art of
Speaker 1: Fascinating and Anecdotes of Love, being a true account of
Speaker 1: the most remarkable events connected with the history of love
Speaker 1: in all ages and among all nations. Like other beauty
Speaker 1: books that we have talked about on the show before,
Speaker 1: Montese notes that beauty is totally subjective and that standards
Speaker 1: of beauty have varied around the world and throughout history.
Speaker 1: And then she moves into twenty eight chapters on how
Speaker 1: to be beautiful, including how to obtain a handsome form,
Speaker 1: habits which destroy the complexion, a beautiful bosom, and beauty
Speaker 1: of dress. This book drops a lot of names of
Speaker 1: notable people that she's met in places that she's traveled.
Speaker 1: It also includes a lot of recipes, with Montez advising
Speaker 1: readers to make their own cosmetics, since commercially available products
Speaker 1: are often full of poisons, they often were full of bosons,
Speaker 1: so that part, that part mostly makes sense. The Arts
Speaker 1: of Beauty ends, as we said, with fifty rules for
Speaker 1: the art of fascinating and This is a tongue in
Speaker 1: cheeks satire written as tips for men, but for the
Speaker 1: amusement of the women reading the book. So, for example,
Speaker 1: rule the tenth is quote. If you are invited to dine,
Speaker 1: go at least an hour or an hour and a
Speaker 1: half before the time for then the lady will be
Speaker 1: sure never to forget you, as the attentive and polite
Speaker 1: gentleman who allowed her neither time to dress nor to
Speaker 1: superintend her dinner, Like its name suggests, Anecdotes of Love
Speaker 1: is a collection of famous historical love stories, including past
Speaker 1: podcast subjects of Spasia and Pericles and Abalard and Eloise.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty seven, Montes briefly considered marrying again, this
Speaker 1: time to Prince Ludwig Johann Sukalski of Austria. He was
Speaker 1: one of the many royals she had met while she
Speaker 1: was in Europe. We did not name all of these royals.
Speaker 1: Before he had fled Austria in the wake of the
Speaker 1: revolutions of eighteen forty eight. Montes sailed to Paris, believing
Speaker 1: that he was going to meet her there, but it
Speaker 1: turned out he was already married. And this whole thing
Speaker 1: was a giant hoax. I'm debating over whether I feel
Speaker 1: like this is a taste of her own medicine or not,
Speaker 1: but I had the same I had the same response, honestly.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty eight, Montes return to the UK. She
Speaker 1: gave another lecture tour, and in London she gave a
Speaker 1: speech on the institution of slave in the US. Her
Speaker 1: argument here was kind of a tangle. She described slavery
Speaker 1: as an enormous national sin and lynch law as a
Speaker 1: terror we can all agree with, but she also claimed
Speaker 1: that enslaved people on southern plantations were content and that
Speaker 1: the institution would somehow just disappear on its own. British
Speaker 1: abolitionists criticized this lecture heavily, and Montes countered that this
Speaker 1: reaction was hypocritical, considering the British Empire's treatment of the
Speaker 1: native peoples of the places it was colonizing, including India.
Speaker 1: Montes returned to New York in the fall of eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty nine and continued to lecture around the US. On
Speaker 1: June thirtieth, eighteen sixty, she had a stroke. Her mother
Speaker 1: came to the United States to see her. In some cases,
Speaker 1: this was to take care of her and in others
Speaker 1: it was more to try to get money from her.
Speaker 1: Either way, their reunion doesn't seem to have gone very well,
Speaker 1: and her mother didn't stay long. Lola Montes seemed to
Speaker 1: be recovering well, but then she contracted pneumonia. She died
Speaker 1: on January seventeenth, eighteen sixty one, at the age of
Speaker 1: thirty nine. Yeah, there's been various speculation about what could
Speaker 1: have caused her to have a stroke at such a
Speaker 1: relatively young age, with explanations anywhere from the malaria that
Speaker 1: she pretty clearly had for her whole life to syphilis.
Speaker 1: But again that's like very speculative based on the fact
Speaker 1: that somebody had a stroke at a pretty young age,
Speaker 1: then one would typically think of someone having a stroke.
Speaker 1: When Lola Montes died, Ludwig the First of Bavaria was
Speaker 1: seventy four. He had not seen her in thirteen years,
Speaker 1: and he learned of her death through news reports. Later on,
Speaker 1: he got a letter from her friend Maria E. Buchanan,
Speaker 1: which was sent to Lola's request, and this letter expressed
Speaker 1: Lola's sincere regard for him and said that she had
Speaker 1: died as a true penitent. Ludwig to appreciate this, he
Speaker 1: wrote back, and it was a nice little note. And
Speaker 1: then Maria later wrote to him again, suggesting that he
Speaker 1: might pay to have a fence put around her grave
Speaker 1: at Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery. Invig did not answer that one.
Speaker 1: Lola's first husband, Thomas James, also outlived her. He died
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy one, so he could have gotten remarried.
Speaker 1: He sure could. I One of the biographies that I
Speaker 1: read of her was called Lola Montes, a Life by
Speaker 1: Bruce Seymour, and I think he traced what happens to
Speaker 1: Thomas James afterward, and I don't remember off the top
Speaker 1: of my head. Lola Montes's notoriety continued for decades after
Speaker 1: her death, with fictional characters based on her, and plays
Speaker 1: and movies fictionalizing her exploits. More recently, she inspired the
Speaker 1: song whatever Lola Wants Lola Gets from the nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: five Broadway musical Damn Yankees. I could sing that by heart.
Speaker 1: And there is a running bit about her in season
Speaker 1: of Dickinson on Apple Plus that as a show I
Speaker 1: was watching before I started working on this episode, and
Speaker 1: when I learned there was a Lola Montees running bit.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, gotta stop what else I'm watching
Speaker 1: and catch up and see this? Yeah, In Damn Yankees?
Speaker 1: Do you know the story? In Damn Yankees, she's basically
Speaker 1: now packed with the devil and becomes involved with the
Speaker 1: lead character when he makes a similar pact, and it's
Speaker 1: sort of their story. She's not so violent in that
Speaker 1: and is much more of a winsome character. She is
Speaker 1: not physically present on screen anywhere on Dickinson, but it's
Speaker 1: a running joke that spans over multiple episodes. Today. Mount
Speaker 1: Lola in the Sierra Nevada is named for her, as
Speaker 1: are two Lakes and Tahoe National Forest. Her home in
Speaker 1: Grass Valley, California is a State Historic Landmark. That is
Speaker 1: Lola Montez. I don't know, having referenced all this, if
Speaker 1: I would actually call her a trip. However, most of
Speaker 1: the things that would make me maybe not call her
Speaker 1: that are things that aren't usually covered in quick writeups
Speaker 1: of her, like like striking her lady's maid when her
Speaker 1: lady's maid try to leave her service, and leaving her
Speaker 1: touring company stranded in Australia. Like, I can't get behind
Speaker 1: any of that I can. You know, I often take
Speaker 1: some glee in people who push against societal norms, and
Speaker 1: then that way, she's kind of a trip, But in
Speaker 1: other ways, I'm like, you're more of a mess to me.
Speaker 1: See now, I'm like, what does a trip mean to you?
Speaker 1: Because to me, those all factor in.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, but I think that's just one of
Speaker 2: those like colloquial vernacular things that probably has no clear
Speaker 2: definition anyway, right, sure, yeah, yeah, I think in my
Speaker 2: head I would describe somebody who was a trip as
Speaker 2: a little less harmless than Lola.
Speaker 1: See. To me, part of it is a juxtaposition of oh,
Speaker 1: she was a super like fun, love and party gal
Speaker 1: but also very violent. What a trip? But oh, I see,
Speaker 1: like the journey from one to the other. This is
Speaker 1: so interesting to me. Thanks so much for joining us
Speaker 1: on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive,
Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook RL
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Speaker 1: could be obsolete. Now. Our current email address is History
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