California, St Petersburg, Warsaw, Dresden, Munich...
Where to start?
Preferably close to home, at the gold-producing fields of Ballarat - 120 km from Melbourne.
We visited this place many times, looking for gold or listening to great music and this important fact did not escape my attention - in February 1858, the famous scandalist Lola Montez visited Ballarat and presented her famous Spider Dance ==> CLICK.
During this dance, she fluttered her dress, revealing her legs higher and higher until... opinions are divided - some viewers saw her panties, others saw that they did not see any panties.
However, there was a brave journalist, Henry Seekamp, who reported in his writing that the panties were a secondary matter, the primary thing was the fact that Mrs. Montez did not perform any dancing.
This insult requires blood. The next day, Mrs. Montez found the journalist in a local bar and attacked him with a riding crop...
Details HERE.
In both linked reports I noticed surprising information: "After fleeing from the coup in Bavaria, Montez..."
A coup in Bavaria?
Wait a minute, let's start from the beginning.
Who is behind this Spanish name?
Some sources say that it was a Spanish princess, but I remember who emigrated en masse to Australia in the mid-19th century - the Irish!
That's right - Lola Montez was born in Limerick as Maria Dolores Elisa Rosanna Gilbert, the daughter of Edward Gilbert, a low-ranking British naval officer, and señorita Oliverres de Montalva.
When she was 3 years old, her father was sent on business to India, where he died of cholera a few years later. Senorita Oliverres soon found a husband, and a little later she found a husband for her daughter - an 80-year-old judge.
Maria Dolores ran away from home and married a much younger officer. After a few months of marriage, her husband ran away from Maria Dolores and she probably decided that marriage was a slippery slope, changed her name to Lola Montez and set out to conquer the world.
Paris - here she charmed both Alexandre Dumas - father and son.
Dresden - Franz Liszt.
Warsaw - I will stay here longer...
Encyclopedia of Polish Theater (Sources 1) reports:
"...At that time, Lola Montez, the daughter of a former Spanish general, came to Warsaw. As a dancer, she made a contract with the management for five performances, PLN 3,000 each. Being beautiful, she found protection in Prince Radziville, Count Zamoyski, Turculle, Minister, Franciszek Potocki etc. etc.
During the first performance, the screams and applause of patrons and young chairs replaced the lack of talent, because, to be honest, it was a disgrace to Mrs. Turczynowicz and Miss Wendt, the first soloists of the Warsaw ballet; they would dance this song more skillfully.
(...)
The next day, the management sent a message informing her that she was free from further performances. But here the protectors invaded Abramovich in order to fulfill the agreement; that when he returns to the country, he will talk badly about Poles; and they made many other remarks, and they did not leave him until he promised them that he would appear again in three days.
The cunning Spanish understood that the audience was dissatisfied and assured herself that her protectors would support her. Moreover, when she attended dinners with the banker Piotr Steinkeller, she asked him for protection.
As a result, Steinkeller handed out a hundred tickets to blacksmiths (up to 200 of whom worked in his factory in Solec), with instructions to watch out for him: as soon as he starts clapping, they should all clap their hands as hard as they can.
Lola started dancing. They started hissing. But Steinkeller's blacksmiths, if there was a thunderclap, would drown out the hissers, who, out of patience, whistling shrilly with the help of whistles, gained the field.
Lola stopped dancing, the orchestra fell silent, and she, coming to the front of the stage, said in French that this whistling came from this box - and pointed to Abramovich's box.
The curtain was lowered and everyone dispersed.
The next morning the order came from Fr. Viceroy to ask Lola Montez to leave Warsaw within 12 hours.
The war governor sent for her, but she did not want to go to him, only to the prince. The policeman standing outside the door did not let her go, so she hit him with a dagger, which slid down the lacquered bandolier. The policeman was immediately replaced by two gendarmes..."
The next stage was St. Petersburg.
Lola was received by Tsar Nicholas I in a private audience.
Lola's biography (source 4) gives a rather extraordinary account of this audience...
It was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the commander of the front in the Caucasus.
The Tsar hid Lola in a closet so that he could fully concentrate on the situation at the front. The matter was serious, the tsar and the commander had to meet with the army commanders, they left the room, the tsar slammed the door.
Only after a few hours did he remember about Lola, send an aide to free her and apologize. He then apologised personally and gave her 1,000 rubles in compensation.
It's time to conquer Bavaria...
The year 1846 - the king of Bavaria was Ludwig I (grandfather of Ludwig II, who invented the castle for Disneyland).
Sources (2) report that Ludwig I was also an oddity - he did not use a carriage, walked the streets, wrote poems, built the Valhalla temple (sources 3) in honor of outstanding figures of "broadly understood German culture" - wide enough to fit M. Copernicus in it.
No wonder that when he saw Lola Montez on stage in Munich, he was charmed by her.
In 5 days he invited her as an official guest to the royal court.
After a month, he gave her the title of Princess of Landsdorf, built a house for her and set her a salary of 20,000 florins.
It was already 1847 - Europe was getting ready for the Spring of Nations - Lola Montez was ruling Munich like she was in her backyard, she was arrogant towards the queen.
Things took a turn for the worse when Lola began to interfere with the composition of the university council. Students organised mass protests, the king issued a decree closing the university for a year, the protests spread to the entire city - the council of lords issued a decree expelling Lola from Bavaria, the mob burned her house. Ludwig I was forced to abdicate.
Lola moved to Switzerland, she hoped that Ludwig I would join her, but when this did not happen, she went to England where she married for the second time. Unfortunately, it turned out that her separation from her first husband was not entirely formal, she was accused of bigamy, so she fled to the USA.
There was a gold rush in California and Lola's performances were very popular. I guess she was once again harmed by men's excessive fascination with her - another wedding, formal ambiguities - it was better to move overseas.
In Australia, Lola was very popular among gold miners, but the media was rather critical.
I started the entry with an account of such a critical reception, which resulted in a duel with riding crops. This event was immortalised by the Australian composer - Albert Denning - in the song Lola Montez Polka, riding crops shoot thickly - CLICK.
In May 1856, Lola began her journey back to California.
Attempts to return to the stage were not successful - Lola spent the last years of her life giving moralising talks.
She died on January 17, 1861 at the age of 40.
Sources:
1. Encyclopedia of Polish Theatre (in Polish) - KLIK.
2. Lola Montez and the King of Bavaria- KLIK.
3. Walhalla - KLIK.
4 - Scandalous life of Lola Montez - KLIK.
5. Biography published in year 1909, author Edward B. d'Auvergne - KLIK.
6. Wikipedia - KLIK .
