The Queen of Lola-Land
From Sasha
I am reading a fabulous book at the moment: Temptress: From The Original Bad Girls to Women on Top (my hunny works at an art book company, so I get to indulge in some great stuff). I just finished the chapter on Lola Montez, and I can't get her out of my mind!
Born Eliza Gilbert in Limerick, Ireland, Lola had a quick mind and a fiery temper, and the dramatic looks to match. The life of a dutiful wife in Victorian Ireland suited her not one whit, so she left her marriage and set off for Spain to study Flamenco dancing. There she picked up Spanish, and reinvented herself as "Lola Montez", the daughter of a matador. She correctly intuited that exotic dancing was her ticket to fame and freedom, and she took her act all over Europe, picking up lovers and shocking upstanding moral people along the way. It was quite a sensation in the 1800s to publicly demonstrate "sensuous" dance movements, not to mention the flashing of ankles and possibly even knees!
Lola had affairs with Franz Liszt, Alexandre Dumas, and many other rich and powerful men, but her most scandalous liason was with the King of Bavaria, King Ludwig I. Ludwig was so bowled over by her charms that he lost all control of his heart and the purse strings of the country's treasury, even building Lola her own palace– featuring a fountain that sprayed perfumed water! Lola ended up essentially ruling Bavaria in the stead of the aging and besotted king, and her liberal rule infuriated those who would flex their political muscle. Eventually her detractors did get the upper hand, stirring up a violent movement against Lola, and in the end Ludwig abdicated his very crown rather than severe his alliance with his controversial mistress.
