PEACE IS THE LOVE OF HUMANITY

 

LILLIE LANGTRY "THE JERSEY LILY" SINGS ON THE MARGATE BOAT 1903

I searched for the silent film that Lillie Langtry made - just one - and apparently a copy does not exist.  However, the model -actress-singer did record some songs and this YouTube video was a find. It also has many a photograph.  She was a Pear's Soap model and is credited as the first celebrity to endorse a product during her early days.

The Margate Boat was recorded in 1903. (She was in midlife.)

The one film she appeared in, in 1913, was titled "His Neighbor's Wife." (She was nearing her senior years.)

Born in 1853, the woman born Emilie Charlotte de Bathe, known to the world as an model, actress, singer - and Royal Mistress, died in 1929 in Monaco, age 75.

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GROWING

 

LILLIE LANGTRY : A NEW HUSBAND INFLUENCES HER TO SELL OUT OF THE HORSE AND RACING BUSINESS

Excerpt pages 247-248

In 1899, when she was forty-five, she married Hugo de Bathe. He was an odd choice for her.  He was nineteen years younger than her and he had no money to speak of. His main attraction seems to have been his father's title and Lillie would become Lady de Bathe. She was able to go ahead with the marriage with a clear conscious, because her troublesome first husband, Edward, had died of a brain hemorrhage in an insane asylum just over a year earlier, ending the speculation over the validity of her Californian divorce.

Hugo persuaded Lillie to sell her riding stable and horses, because he didn't think it was proper for a woman to own racehorses. The couple lived on Jersey for a time, but when Hugo volunteered for army service in the Boer War and left for South Africa, she returned to London and resurrected her stage career. Initially, she was just as successful as before, but her appeal was slowly waning. She tired vaudeville in New York and she made a film. In 1907, her marriage to Hugo finally paid off. Hugo's father died and she became Lady de Bathe....

It's my suspicion that Lillie supported her younger husband and that they both went their separate ways without considering divorce. In this way during the Victorian Era both would have been considered more respectable.   

I have a question for you: Have you given up a business in order to keep a relationship?

ROSES and LILY

 

LILLIE LANGTRY BECOMES INDEPENDENT OF HER HUSBAND, FOUNDS A THEATRE AND BECOMES A BUSINESS WOMAN.

Excerpt pages 246-247: in 1882, after success in Britain, Lillie founded her own theatre company and took it on a tour of the United States. She found that her reputation had preceded her, so she played to full houses wherever she went.  She made repeated tours of the States that were Equally successful. And she collected male admirers along the way.  One of them, wealthy horse breeder Freddie Gebhard, spent a fortune on her.  Her earnings from the theatre and Freddie's expensive fits enabled her to start a winery and, like Freddie, breed horses. She became an American citizen in 1887m which enabled her finally to have her marriage to her first husband, Edward, dissolved.  The marriage was ended by a California court, but legal opinion at the time suggested that the divorce was invalid in Britain and indeed anywhere outside California...

Lillie Langtry had another relationship, a violent one, with a man who also had a passion for horses.  In 1893 he died and left her more horses and she had a business named Mr. Jersey.  I note that she did not use Miss or Mrs. Jersey.  This put it into perspective for me that this Victorian Era woman had to deal with the extremely limited options women had at that time.  Queen Victoria might have ruled, but most women could only achieve power and status through their husbands or associations with men. And it's often still the same way.

Do you have a mentor, patron, benefactor? Is there anyone you can count on for a personal loan, gift, scholarship or internship?

Please leave me a comment!

Missy
 

CARRY ME WITH YOU

 

OSCAR WILDE ENOURAGED LILLIE LANGTRY TO BECOME AN ACTRESS AFTER BEING A MISTRESS TO EDWARD ALBERT, PRINCE OF WALES

 

Excerpt page 246

Oscar Wilde suggested that she should capitalize on her fame by taking to the stage.  She got her first taste of performing on stage at an amateur dramatic production in Twickenham, southwest London.  That led to an appearance in a charity performance at the Haymarket Theatre in London.  her name on the bill and the attendance of the Prince of Wales ensured a full house.  The critics praised her performance.  As a result, she was offered a contract to appear professionally at the Haymarket.  The prince continued to take his place in the royal box to support her.  Even though they were no longer lovers, they remained friends....

Missy here:  I think of Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman also, as she was known to stay friends with the men she had been mistress to. 

Think about this.

Some men break with you saying they just want to be friends, because they don't want you to be mad at them, and you never hear from them again. Is being friends with someone you had a romantic and sexual relationship with worth the effort?  Can it be done when you've moved into another relationship?  Between relationships?

Let me know what you think!  Use Comments!  If you don't want me to publish what you write and it's just for me to read, start by typing "Do Not Publish."

SO MANY WAYS TO LOVE

 

LILLIE LANGTRY's FRIEND OSCAR WILDE WROTE THE POEM ROSES AND RUE FOR HER

Though Oscar Wilde was likely bisexual; opinions differ.  He did marry.  He might have been repressed. He was reportedly in love with Lillie Langtry.

Roses and Rue

by Oscar Wilde

Could we dig up this long-buried treasure,
Were it worth the pleasure,
We never could learn love's song,
We are parted too long

Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead,
Could we live it all over again,
Were it worth the pain!

I remember we used to meet
By an ivied seat,
And you warbled each pretty word
With the air of a bird;

And your voice had a quaver in it,
Just like a linnet,
And shook, as the blackbird's throat
With its last big note;

And your eyes, they were green and grey
Like an April day,
But lit into amethyst
When I stooped and kissed;

And your mouth, it would never smile
For a long, long while,
Then it rippled all over with laughter
Five minutes after.

You were always afraid of a shower,
Just like a flower:
I remember you started and ran
When the rain began.

I remember I never could catch you,
For no one could match you,
You had wonderful, luminous, fleet,
Little wings to your feet.

I remember your hair - did I tie it?
For it always ran riot -
Like a tangled sunbeam of gold:
These things are old.

I remember so well the room,
And the lilac bloom
That beat at the dripping pane
In the warm June rain;

And the colour of your gown,
It was amber-brown,
And two yellow satin bows
From the shoulders rose.

And the handkerchief of French lace
Which you held to your face-
Had a small tear left a stain?
Or was it the rain?

On your hand as it waved adieu
There were veins of blue;
In your voice as it said good-bye
Was a petulant cry,

"You have only wasted your life."
(Ah, that was the knife!)
When I rushed through the garden gate
It was all too late.

Could we live it over again,
Were it worth the pain,
Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead!

Well, if my heart must break,
Dear love, for your sake,
It will break in music, I know,
Poets' hearts break so.

But strange that I was not told
That the brain can hold
In a tiny ivory cell
God's heaven and hell.

The Morgan Library and Museum Link to the manuscript!

I dare you to write a love poem and give it to the person who inspired it!

Missy

TO MY VALENTINE

 

LILLIE LANGTRY's PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP WITH EDWARD ALBERT, PRINCE OF WALES AS HIS OFFICIAL MISTRESS SPARKED HER INTEREST IN HORSES

Excerpt Page 244

Very soon, the prince (Edward Albert, Prince of Wales) acknowledged Lillie as his official mistress and appeared in public with her.  They were seen riding together in Hyde Park and attending horse races, which sparked Lillie's lifelong interest in horses.  They enjoyed yachting regattas and weekends in the country. She was finally able to wear the finest dresses, given free of charge by designers who wanted the famous Lillie Langtry to be seen wearing their creations.  Aristocrats and foreign royalty wanted to meet her too.  And everyone wanted to know about the events she attended, what she wore, how her hair was styled, what she said and what she did.  She was famous as a film star today.  In 1878, she was even presented to Queen Victoria...

INNER BEAUTY : DECLARATION FOR MISTRESSES

"I will bring forth my inner beauty."  

Mistresses are often thought to be trading their outer beauty for wealth. But history doesn't prove this to be true. Some mistresses were plain looking, some heavy, and some were not especially intelligent. Yet they had their appeal. Personality - and compatibility - is important! And not all men who have mistresses are actually wealthy. Some are well to do or comfortable. Many mistresses are still providing most of their own support.

C 2009 -2025 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

First published September 12, 2009

LOVING LILYS

 

LILLIE LANGTRY : THREE YEARS AS THE MISTRESS OF SEX ADDICT EDWARD ALBERT, PRINCE OF WALES IN THE 1970'S : SHE FOUND HER WAY FORWARD IN MODELING AND ACTING

Author Ian Graham's book, which has a portion devoted to Lille Langtry, a mistress of Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, this month's Mistress of the Month, is the primary reference for the posts I present. This book has a long list of  women who have been "Scarlet." Several of them have already been featured here at Mistress Manifesto. 

In Chapter Six, Princes of Pleasure, we learn that Queen Victoria was disappointed in her oldest son, destined to be King of England, and until then titled the Prince of Wales. Prince Edward Albert was called Flirty Bertie. He did much more than flirt, frequently visiting prostitutes in French brothels, and without concern for what his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, who he married in 1863, might think. Marriage did not confine Edward Albert.

Today practicing Safer Sex is the only way to go, with our valid concerns for our health because venereal diseases, now called SID's, such as HIV and herpes. Then? Edward Albert was a sex addict, as I see it. In his case, having a wife and a mistress, or a series of them, did not cure him. He was involved in several scandals" with married women.

In August 2024 I featured one of his known mistresses, Catherine Walters, as Mistress of the Month, referencing a different book. He is known to have many affairs.

This months we focus on...

An 1885 Portrait of Lily by William Downey

image from Wikipedia

LILLIE LANGTRY - THE JERSEY LILY

Emilie Charlotte Le Breton

"The Jersey Lily"

1853-1929

Emilie Le Breton was a tomboy, running wild with her many brothers as a child and living the life of an island girl. Because her family had the means, she was given an education through tutors though a girl. Her father was a womanizer and adulterer, though a cleric; He reportedly fathered several children with parishioners. At fourteen she began to receive marriage proposals and at twenty she accepted the proposal of Edward Langtry, rich enough to own an eighty foot boat, especially impressive for 1874. They sailed away and set up house in London, where her outstanding beauty was only more obvious because of the simple clothing she wore.

After a lonely first year in London, she was painted by a local artist, who had prints of her image in shop windows. From then she posed for a number of artists and photographers who are respected today. She was welcomed into high society, into literary circles, as a friend and inspiration. Her husband went his own way, socializing with his men friends who went fishing and drinking. He was not paying enough attention. It's said that Lillie would ruin his life. 

In 1877, the Prince of Wales managed to have her sit next to him at a dinner party. In what seems to be the custom of friends of a Prince, they invited her husband to events in order to give Edward Albert and Lillie time to pursue an affair. He also gave her a house which she designed, as a love nest. They enjoyed themselves openly and he gifted her with jewelry and designer clothing. In 1878 she was even formally presented to Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales' mother. Once presented, other Princes and men of wealth and power were interested in Lillie.

Lillie was acknowledged as Edward Albert's mistress for three years. The relationship began to dwindle when, at this point, Lillie's husband began to activate and may have threatened to divorce her and reveal that the married Edward Albert was his wife's lover. Other women were no doubt attractive to him, and Lillie had competition. 

As well, she began an affair with the Prince of Battenburg and became pregnant. While the Prince of Battenburg was sent away on a navy assignment, she went away to Paris and gave birth to a daughter in March 1881. The infant was soon sent away to be raised by her mother.

Once the Prince of Wales had moved on, creditors moved in on her and her husband, who went bankrupt. She also had to sell some of the rich things she had acquired. She had to go on and, like some other mistresses I've presented here at Mistress Manifesto, she used her beauty and connections to get a break. When she made her debut as an actress, the Prince of Wales attended, showing his support - and friendship. Lillie Langtry moved forward into stage acting and, controversially, divorced her husband. The Prince of Wales persisted in his friendship with Lillie, such as being there in 1897 when a horse she owned won a race.

In 1881 Lillie gave birth to a daughter and left her with her own mother to be raised. The father was Prince Louis of Battenburg.

In 1899 at the age of forty-five Lillie Langtry married Hugo de Bathe, nineteen years younger than she, and became Lady de Bathe when his father died in 1907. She retired in Monaco and died there. Her husband did not attend her funeral. He was not in her will.

This month we'll learn more about Lillie Langtry, and celebrate Valentine's Day. As I read about how Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, and his friends managed so that he could have liaisons with a mistress, I was reminded of Prince Charles, now King Charles III, and Camilla Parker-Bowles, now Queen Camilla - and featured here in the past. You can read about Camilla by going into my archives.

Missy

C 2025 Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot

Book Review

All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights

Information of Lillie Langtry appears in pages 242 - 248 of the book buy Ian Graham.