The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to ConvertWyndham, Horace
History
The Magnificent Montez: From Courtesan to Convert
Wyndham, Horace
Montez, Lola, 1818-1861
In September, 1846, she found herself in Wurtemburg, where, much to
her annoyance, she discovered that a certain Amalia Stubenrauch, a
prepossessing damsel, who would now be called a gold-digger, had
conquered the spare affections of King William, on whom Lola herself
had designs. But that large-hearted monarch had, as it happened, few
affections to spare for anybody just then, for, when she encountered
him at Stuttgart, he was on the point of being married to Princess
Olga of Russia. A correspondent of the _Athenaeum_, who was there to
chronicle the wedding festivities for his paper, registered
disapproval at her presence in the district. "From the capital of
Wurtemburg," he announced sourly, "Lola Montez departed in the
_schnellpost_ for Munich, unimpeded by any luggage." Somebody else,
however (perhaps a more careful observer), is emphatic that she "went
off with three carts full of trunks." As she always had a considerable
wardrobe, this is quite possible.
II
When, at the suggestion of Baron Maltitz (a Homburg acquaintance who
had suggested that she should "try her luck in Munich"), Lola set off
for Bavaria, that country was ruled by Ludwig I. A god-child of
Marie-Antoinette, and the son of Prince Max Joseph of Zweibrucken and
Princess Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt, he was born at Salzburg in 1786
and had succeeded his father in 1825. As a young man, he had served
with the Bavarian troops under Napoleon, and detesting the experience,
had conceived a hatred of everything military. This hatred was so
strongly developed that he would not permit his sons to wear uniform.
Under his regime the military estimates were cut down to the bone. The
army, he said, was a "waste of money," and he grudged every _pfennig_
it cost the annual budget. He did his best to abolish conscription,
but had to abandon the effort. For all, too, that he was a god-son of
Marie-Antoinette, he had no love for France.
[Illustration: _Porte St. Martin Theatre, Paris, where Lola was a
"flop"_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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