Lillie Langtry
This article refers to Langtry, Lillie. For other uses, see Langtry (disambiguation).Lillie Langtry (née
Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, nicknamed
the Jersey Lily) (
13 October 1853 –
12 February 1929) was a
British actress and
courtesan born on the island of
Jersey in
1853.
|
Lillie Langtry, depicted with a Jersey lily in her hair by Frank Miles |
Emilie Le Breton was the only daughter of the
Dean of
Jersey, Rev. William Corbet le Breton, having six brothers. She was educated by a French governess, her brothers' tutor.
In
1874, Emilie married Irish landowner
Edward Langtry. One of her attractions to him was the fact that he possessed a yacht, and she insisted that he take her away from the
Channel Islands; eventually they set up home in
London. She did not begin her stage career until several years later, after her husband became bankrupt. [
1] A letter of condolence written by her to a widow reads in part: "I too have lost a husband, but alas! it was no great loss" (Letter in the Curtis Theatre Collection, University of Pittsburgh)
Lille Langtry was, throughout her marriage, unfaithful, and throughout her lifetime
promiscuous. She had many notable lovers, most prominent and well-connected men of the time. Langtry's heyday as a society beauty and
courtesan culminated in her becoming a semi-official mistress to the
Prince of Wales,
Queen Victoria's son Albert Edward ("Bertie"), the future king
Edward VII. When Edward once complained, "I've spent enough on you to buy a battleship," Lillie tartly retorted, "And you've spent enough in me to float one!" Edward VII's relationship with Lillie cooled down when at a party she consumed so much alcohol she became intoxicated, and slipped and fell after stepping on a piece of ice, which infuriated him. [
2] For some time he didn't even see her. Nevertheless he continued being fond of her, and he spoke fondly of her as a theatre actress. He later (possibly to rid himself of the affair) encouraged
Prince Louis of Battenberg to replace him as Lillie's lover.
She had a daughter, born in
1881 (
Jeanne Marie Langtry), who later married Sir
Ian Malcolm of Poltalloch in
1902. Her daughter and her husband had four children. Jeanne died in
1964.
Her daughter Jeanne's father was definitely not Lillie's husband. The child's actual father was reportedly Lillie Langtry's extra-marital lover at the time,
Prince Louis of Battenberg (later 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, 1854–1921), who married
Princess Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine in
1884 and became father of
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who became the last Viceroy of India (and great-uncle of Prince Charles) and uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. When Prince Louis confessed to his parents he was the father of Lillie's baby, he was assigned to the warship
HMS Inconstant, and Lillie, after receiving some money, retired to the country. Her marriage was dissolved and she married again with
Sir Hugh de Bathe.
A recent biography of Langtry suggests that another of her extramarital lovers, Arthur Jones, may have been Jeanne Marie's father, although Prince Louis's son, Lord Mountbatten, always maintained that it in fact was his father.
Other lovers included wealthy Britons
Robert Peel and
George Baird.
|
Langtry as Mrs de Bathe c. 1915 |
Among her friends were the Irish writer
Oscar Wilde and the American artist
James McNeill Whistler. She was for a time the manager of the Imperial Theatre and also manufactured
claret at her 4,200 acre (17 km²)
winery in Lake County (northern)
California, which she purchased in
1888 and sold in
1906.
In
1887, Lillie became an
American citizen, and
divorced her husband the same year in
California. In
1899, she married the much younger
Hugo Gerald de Bathe, who would inherit a baronetcy, and became a leading owner in the
horse-racing world, before retiring to
Monte Carlo. Her last years of acting were performed with
vaudeville.
She resided during her final years in a home in
Monaco, with her husband living separate from her a short distance away. During this period the two only saw one another when he was called upon by her for a social gathering, or brief private encounters. Her constant companion during this time was her close friend, Mathilda Peat, who was the widow of Lillie's deceased
butler. She died there in 1929, and was buried in the graveyard of St. Saviour's Church in Jersey – the church of which her father had been rector.
Her nickname, "The Jersey Lily", was taken from the Jersey lily flower (
Amaryllis belladonna) – a symbol of
Jersey. The nickname was popularised by a portrait of Lillie Langtry, entitled
A Jersey Lily, painted by Sir
John Everett Millais, a fellow-countryman (according to tradition, they spoke
Jèrriais to each other during the sittings).
The painting caused great interest when exhibited at the
Royal Academy, but Lillie is holding a
Guernsey lily (
Nerine sarniensis) in the painting rather than a Jersey lily, as no Jersey lilies were available at
Covent Garden during the sittings.
|
Caricature of Langtry, from Punch, Christmas 1890. The soap box on which she sits is a reference to the Millais painting, Bubbles |
Besides sitting for Millais,
Frank Miles and Sir
Edward Poynter, she is also depicted in works by Sir
Edward Burne-Jones.
She used her high public profile to endorse commercial products such as cosmetics and soap, becoming an early example of celebrity endorsement.
Lillie Langtry's story was dramatised by
London Weekend Television in
1978 as
Lillie, with
Francesca Annis in the title role. Annis had previously played Langtry in an episode of
ATV's
Edward VII. She was also portrayed on film by
Lillian Bond in
The Westerner, and by
Ava Gardner in the
1972 movie
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.
A heavily fictionalized incarnation of Langtry was performed by
Stacy Haiduk in the
1996 television series
Kindred: The Embraced. In the series, Langtry is the immortal leader of a sect of
vampires living in the present day.
Langtry is also a featured character in the tongue-in-cheek
western novel,
Slocum and the Jersey Lily by
Jake Logan. She figures prominently in "Death at Epsom Downs" by Robin Paige, the pseudonym of Bill and Susan Wittig Albert who write a series of Victorian novels featuring actual people.
The song
Pictures of Lily, wrote in
1966 by
The Who, is about a guy who had his childhood's problems resolved by "Pictures of Lily" put in his bedroom by his father to help him to sleep at night
The town of
Langtry, Texas, was not named for her, although its most illustrious inhabitant, Judge
Roy Bean, was an ardent admirer, naming the saloon where he held court "The Jersey Lily". Bean himself spread the rumor about the town's name. He also built an
opera house in anticipation of a visit, and Mrs. Langtry appeared there after Bean's death. (The town was named for railroad supervisor
George Langtry.)
The
Langtry Manor hotel was built as a romantic retreat for Lillie and the Prince of Wales. - of course it was not built as a hotel but as a private house.
Merman Cottage in
Saint Brelade, Jersey, was owned and occupied by Lillie Langtry (
Merman was also the name of one of her racehorses).
In the
Golden Triangle (Norwich) area of
Norwich, England, there is a public house named the Lillie Langtry, which is decorated in the
Edwardian theatre style and has articles from newspapers of the time and old documents celebrating the talent of Lillie Langtry.
|
The Lillie Langtry pub in Chelsea, London. Photo by Jon Ezrine |
Langtry, Lillie,
The Days I Knew,
1925. (
Autobiography.)
*
Lillie Langtry Museum on the Internet*
Lillie Langtry biography
