WEBVTT - How Lola Montez Took Down a King 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:02.840 Hey, this is Danish Schwartz, the host of Noble Blood. 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.680 Just a little bit of housekeeping, tiny little announcement before 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.520 we start. I have a new podcast called Hoax. It's 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.040 a very casual podcast with my friend Lizzie Logan, where 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.440 every other week we do a deep dive into a famous, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:21.880 historical or not so historical hoax that fascinates one or 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.119 the other of us. It's so much fun to do. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.640 And if you like Noble Blood and you just want 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.480 to hear me talk in a more casual way, listen 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.040 to Hoax. Hoax exclamation point. We have a lot of 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.880 fun making it. I also have a new book coming 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.400 out in May twenty twenty six. I co wrote this 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.320 book under a pseudonym. It's called The Arcane Arts. I 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.839 co wrote it because we alternate points of view in 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.640 the book. I write the female point of view. My 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.480 co author, my friend Dan, writes the male point of view. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.640 It's a dark academia sexy thriller. If that's the sort 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.120 of thing you think you might like, look up The 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.480 Arcane Arts by s. D. Coverly. Pre Orders really really help. 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.440 So if the book seems like it's something that would 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.679 interest you, please preorder the book, but as always, just 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.840 thank you for listening to the show and letting me 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:17.360 make Noble Blood. Let's get into it. Welcome to Noble Blood, 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.600 A production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:28.520 Listener Discretion advised. Bavaria in the middle of the nineteenth 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:33.319 century was a country in peril. The King, Ludwig the 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.520 First had once been beloved, but now he was mired 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:42.400 in a firestorm of controversy. His subjects were furious with him. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:47.880 Scandals piled up as rumors swirled that his judgment had 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:53.120 been compromised, that he was being controlled by shadowy outside forces. 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:58.440 High ranking officials were dropping like flies, while citizens took 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.000 to the streets in protest. By the middle of the 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:07.560 eighteen forties, the demonstrations had reached a fever pitch. The cabinet, 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.799 the people, and eventually even the rest of the royal 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:15.519 family turned against Ludwig. It reached the point where Ludwig 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.480 knew he couldn't continue to rule, at least not without 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:24.560 undermining the institution of the monarchy itself, and so on 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:30.320 March twentieth, eighteen forty eight, he abdicated the throne, allowing 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:35.040 his son Maximilian to become the new King of Bavaria. 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:41.640 What had caused King Ludwig's remarkable downfall? What had turned 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:46.079 the people against him? Like any question in history, the 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.400 answer is complicated and layered. But at the heart of 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.760 it all in this case is an exotic dancer whom 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.880 the king had made a countess, a woman named Lola Monte. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:10.119 I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood. Lola Montes 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:14.920 blazed a trail throughout the Western world, rubbing elbows and 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.080 more with some of the greatest minds and most powerful 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.560 men of the era, but her fiery spirit and insatiable 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.920 lust for life turned out to be far too much 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.120 for any one man, even a king, to handle. She 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:36.080 was a master of reinvention, an opportunist whose motto was 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:40.920 courage and shuffle the cards. She wasn't actually as she 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.600 claimed until her death from Spain, nor was her real 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:49.600 name Lola Montes, but for simplicity's sake, we'll call her 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:54.200 Lola throughout the episode. She was born in Ireland and 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:59.040 given the name Eliza Rosanna Gilbert. Her birth year was 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.320 most likely Lee eighteen twenty one, although with all things 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.600 Lola Montes, we should take it with a grain of salt. 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.520 Her dad, Edward, was a British officer and her mom 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.920 the illegitimate daughter of a local politician. There were rumors 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.440 that her mom was already pregnant when she got married, 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:22.080 and that was in addition to the circling allegations that 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:27.520 Lola's mother and even her grandmother were also illegitimate. Lola 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.840 never stood a chance. She was just born into a 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:36.480 scandalous life. In eighteen twenty three, the family moved to India, 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:42.520 where Edward's regiment was dispatched. Tragically, Edward died of cholera 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:47.719 soon after their arrival. Lola's mother, Elizabeth, a widow at 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.520 only nineteen years old, remarried within the year to Lieutenant 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:57.720 Patrick Craigie. Craigie was fond of his stepdaughter, but he 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:02.360 was seriously concerned about her her behavior. A childhood in 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.919 a foreign land with a loving but laid back aya 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:11.120 or nursemaid was fertile ground for young Lola's spirited nature 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:17.240 to blossom into problem child territory. At age ten, Lola 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.760 was sent away to live with Craigie's relatives, the idea 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:26.080 being that sometime in England would groom the foreign wildness 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:30.640 out of her, but it didn't work. Lola quickly earned 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.840 a reputation as a troublemaker and was bounced from boarding 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:38.800 school to boarding school, always leaving chaos in her wake. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.880 By the time Lola was sixteen, her mother was eager 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:48.440 to marry her off. Elizabeth was an ambitious social climber 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.839 and saw her daughter's marriage as the perfect way to 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.359 elevate both the family's status and also make her daughter 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:01.720 someone else's problem. Elizabeth showed up at Lola's school at 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.920 this point in Bath and announced her plan. Lola would 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.440 come back to India and marry Sir Abraham Lumley, a 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:15.360 wealthy and powerful judge. Lola bulked at the union for 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.320 many reasons, not least of which was that Lumley was 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.800 sixty years old. Lola wanted nothing to do with that 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:27.040 old man. She sought the advice of a young army 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:31.320 lieutenant named Thomas James, whom her mother had befriended on 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.919 her journey to beth. Lola poured out her heart to 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:39.360 this visiting stranger, and for the first time, but certainly 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:44.039 not the last, a man found himself captivated by her 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:49.280 Lieutenant James was taken with the vibrant young girl and 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:52.279 decided on the spot that he would be the one 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.719 to save her. That very night, he took Lola to 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.520 his family home in Ireland, where they were married days later. 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:05.320 Lola's mother was apoplectic. Her carefully devised social climbing had 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:10.240 ended in complete betrayal, but the marriage was doomed from 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:15.040 the start. Lola was too young and inexperienced to understand 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.440 what she'd committed to, and had mostly been focused on 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.120 getting out of a bad situation. And here is where 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:27.119 we q getaway car by Taylor Swift. Thomas James did 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.240 care for his young bride, but they were never really 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.520 a good fit. Lola wrote of her time in Ireland, quote, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.960 I wished for nothing more intensely than to be abducted 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.640 once more, but this time not by a potential husband, 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.160 but by anything or anyone who could rescue me from 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:50.880 the deadly monotony of this eternally repetitive life. From these 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:57.360 cold English faces, no smiles, no friendly glances, no kind words. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:05.880 What started as verbal arguments escalated into physical abuse. Things 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.080 improved slightly when the couple returned to India in eighteen 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.800 thirty eight and could enjoy some semblance of a social life, 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:18.560 but they parted ways five years later. Desperate to leave 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:22.280 that chapter of her life behind, Lola sailed for London 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.000 a single woman, now with her whole life before her. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.440 She was never one to be without a man for long. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.080 Whether that was a matter of convenience or of genuine 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.959 emotion and preference, will never know, although she most likely 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:42.199 landed somewhere in the middle, regardless of the reasons why exactly. 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.920 Upon her arrival in London, Lola immediately took up with 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.920 a man she met on the ship. Between the money 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.840 she had gotten from both her stepfather and her then 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:56.840 ex husband, Lola arrived in London with around ten thousand dollars, 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:01.120 but thanks to her extravagant spending, it didn't last long. 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:06.480 Neither did that new relationship I alluded to. Now alone 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:11.600 and broke, Eliza needed a new plan. For a single 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:17.160 young woman in the eighteen forties, employment opportunities were scarce. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.199 Lola didn't have the right disposition to be a governess, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.720 and given her scandalous social life, she probably wouldn't have 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.920 kept a position for too long. Besides, the other option 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:35.320 was much more appealing to her the stage. Lola started 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:40.600 her training, but things didn't go perfectly well. Her voice 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.000 was too weak for the theater, and she wasn't naturally 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.280 gifted as a dancer either. But she had one big 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:53.559 thing going for her. She was beautiful, with a magnetic 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:59.320 presence and a killer body. Spanish dances were fashionable at 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.480 the time and required much less in the way of technique, 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:08.080 at least two English audiences. After a few months of 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.560 training and a trip to Spain to study the language 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:17.800 and customs, Lola reinvented herself completely as someone glamorous and 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:24.200 quote unquote exotic. She adopted the stage name Lola Montes 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:29.400 full name Dona Maria Dolores de Pores Emntez. She had 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.720 learned just enough of the language and Spanish customs to 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:39.200 seem authentic to the casual English observer. She started smoking 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:46.199 thin black cigars and spun multiple invented gloriously dramatic backstories 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:50.400 for herself. She was ready to take the world by storm, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:56.240 but even Lola herself couldn't have imagined how far she'd go. 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.559 You might be asking yourself why Spanish. At this time, 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:09.760 Spanish culture was very popular in Europe. It represented passion, mystery, sensuality, 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:14.960 all the things that other cultures, especially early Victorian England, 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:20.720 were sorely lacking. Spanish dancers had a reputation for being 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:27.240 fiery and uninhibited, which coincidentally could provide excellent cover for 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:32.080 a lack of technical prowess. It was the perfect persona 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.440 for a woman looking to reinvent herself and stand out. 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.840 In eighteen forty three, Lola had her stage debut. She 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.920 went on a press tour where she posed as a 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:51.040 genuine Spanish woman telling stories in broken English. She charmed 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:56.199 the press completely. Her reviews were nearly unanimous, although most 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.600 critics did note that she was more style than substance, 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.400 but they didn't seem to mind. But there was one problem. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:10.920 She was almost immediately recognized. People began to talk, and 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:17.040 Lola Montes was outed as Missus James and identified as 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:23.040 most definitely not being actually Spanish. London was too close 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.560 for Lola. If she wanted to make her new persona stick, 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.920 she needed to put more distance between her old life 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:34.280 and her new one. It assumed that around this time 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.200 Lola was putting her natural charms to work as a 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.600 means of supporting herself. Whether that was outright sex work 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.640 or just keeping company with wealthy men who showered her 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.600 with gifts, we can't say, but Lola was never shy about, 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:57.600 let's say, maximizing her assets. Around this time, Lola met 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:02.880 a rich, elderly German prince who soon found himself entranced 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.520 by the exotic young woman. He gave her money to 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:11.200 pay off her debts and extended an offhand invitation to 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.400 come visit his court if she were ever in his country. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.280 That was all the encouragements our girl needed, and she 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.920 headed for the continent. Things didn't go well with the princeling. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:29.120 Lola's casual swearing and rejection of royal protocol rubbed everyone 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.240 the wrong way, but Lola kept it moving, still trying 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:38.000 to get a foothold as a performer. Lola's reception in 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.800 Germany was basically the same as it had been in London. 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.840 Some were entranced by her brash stage presence and gonzo 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:52.120 performing style, but for most patrons, Lola was the inverse 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.760 of that famous song from a chorus line. She was 0:13:56.160 --> 0:14:02.280 looks ten Dance three Again. Lola's temper also got her 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.559 in trouble. She was almost thrown in prison for hitting 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.680 an officer with a whip while trying to sneak into 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.160 a state visit from Zar Nicholas, the First of Russia. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.000 Lola incidentally loved a whip and she needed little excuse 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.040 to break it out. But with that, it was time 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:25.440 for her to move on again. In Poland, Lola found 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:31.560 new benefactors, including the composer Franz List. More stage time 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:36.240 brought more mixed reviews and more controversy. Then it was 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.960 on to Paris, where Lola made her stage debut in 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.280 an opera, but that didn't go particularly well either, and 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:49.840 she soon found herself taken off line ups. People seemed 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:53.680 to either love her or hate her, with no in between. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.040 It can't really be a coincidence that the ones who 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:02.400 loved her were usually predominantly wealthy, powerful men who were 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:07.880 also happy to bankroll her lifestyle. Through a relationship with 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:13.480 newspaper owner and drama critic Alexandra Dujarier, Lola was able 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.720 to boost her performing career, and she continued to perform 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:23.160 to wildly varying reviews. As always, her beauty and stage 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.760 present made up for her lack of real skill. She 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.880 cared deeply for Dujarier and hoped to marry him someday, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:35.120 but he was killed in a duel, and Lola found 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:40.240 herself once more without a protector. She moved from place 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.760 to place and man to man, but no one could 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.720 keep up with her. Finally, in eighteen forty six, Lola 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:52.720 traveled to Munich, where she bagged her biggest catch yet, 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:58.360 the King of Bavaria. Ludwig the First was sixty years 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.360 old when he met Lola. I'm guessing the royal title 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.080 made him much more palatable than the sixty year old 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.720 her mother had tried to marry her off to back 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:13.080 in India. Ludvig at this time was generally popular among 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:17.560 his subjects. As a ruler, he had little political ability, 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:20.880 content to leave the government in the hands of others 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.840 while he focused on the arts and on beautiful women. 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:30.240 For years, his subjects, as well as Queen Terrace, had 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:35.520 tolerated Ludwig's dalliances, knowing any fling would be short lived 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.720 and result in not much more than a new portrait 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.440 for his gallery. There was no reason to think that 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:47.000 this Spanish dancer would be any different. They had no 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:53.000 idea just how different this one would be. Lola and 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.880 Ludwig met in October eighteen forty six. There was a 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.840 rumor that Ludwig asked her in public if her breasts 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.600 were real, and she responded by tearing off enough of 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.439 her garments to prove that they were. Whether or not 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.399 that story is apocryphal, it's undeniable that Ludwig fell under 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:19.680 her spell, and Lola immediately began to exercise her control. 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:24.040 She started getting stage time, and audiences were once again 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.200 divided between love her and hate her. What was obvious 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:32.320 was Ludwig loved her. Within a month, she had a 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:37.720 yearly allowance of ten thousand florins, five times as much 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:42.199 as a university professor's salary and nearly twice that of 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.640 a cabinet minister. A couple weeks after that, Ludwig had 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:51.000 Lola ridden into his will. By December, he had bought 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.240 her a house purchased in her name. This was both 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.560 to keep the money trail clean and to help her 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:05.520 establish residence. More than anything, Lola wanted Bavarian citizenship as 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:09.840 well as elevation to nobility, and she wasn't shy about 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.800 letting the king know. Within just days of meeting her 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.439 Ludwig had presented Lola to his ministers. Gentlemen, you have 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.360 the honor to meet my new best friend, he declared, 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.239 Please oblige me by treating her at all times with 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:30.199 the same respect you have always shown me. But Lola 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:36.480 immediately recognized the stern men as potential enemies and boldly 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.600 warned King Ludwig that his Jesuit packed government controlled him. 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.720 She singled out Prime Minister Carl von Abel as being 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:51.040 particularly untrustworthy. Ludwig was stunned she had identified in mere 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:55.440 weeks what he had been questioning for years. In his eyes, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:19:00.479 that gave Lola enormous credibility. For her part, Lola truly 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:05.160 believed that she was freeing the king's mind from outdated conventions. 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:10.520 She saw herself as the people's liberator, symbolizing freedom in 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:15.040 a new age. Ludwig was deaf to suggestions that she 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:20.280 was manipulating him. The Jesuits called her the apocalyptic Pore. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:26.840 Lola's stubbornness and temper were still on full display, making 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:32.800 her extremely unpopular among the people. Ludwig was spending astronomical 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.159 amounts of money on her, and despite his attempts to 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.840 rein her in she continued to blow past her allotted allowance. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:45.359 She was arrogant and often abusive to anyone who caught 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.520 her at the wrong moment. She was seen with lots 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:54.400 of other men. She was often scandalously under dressed. Despite 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:59.520 opponents installing a spy in Lola's household and reporting back 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:04.840 her ar radic behavior, Ludwig couldn't accept the truth. Despite 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:11.840 extreme oppositional pressure, Ludwig granted Lola Bavarian citizenship in February 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:16.320 of eighteen forty seven. The Minister of the Interior resigned 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:21.840 in protest, and many of his colleagues followed. Suit protests 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:27.080 erupted all over, including one outside Lola's house, where it 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:32.240 is rumored that she, in characteristic fashion, flashed her breasts 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.479 at the crowd. Ludwig was becoming a joke to his 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.479 own people. He and Lola followed all the hallmarks of 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:45.320 a toxic couple. Break up, get back together, cause chaos, 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:50.760 repeat the cycle. Despite all the drama, on Ludwig's birthday, 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:56.720 August twenty fifth, eighteen forty seven, Ludwig made Lola the 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:01.920 Countess of Landsfeld and Baroness of Rosenthal. He wrote her 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.560 a letter asking her to please behave in accordance with 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.760 her new title, essentially begging her not to embarrass him. 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.880 Please please, please, You won't be shocked to know it 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:21.000 didn't work. Lola's elevation to nobility only increased her appetite 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:25.800 for power. Her arrogance, her hatred of the Jesuits, her 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:30.240 blatant greed were all the talk of Europe. Her public 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:36.359 behavior was increasingly shocking, spitting at a bishop, thrashing a worker, 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.520 smashing a shop window, or breaking her parasol over the 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.600 head of a nobleman who opposed her. On more than 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.520 one occasion, she threatened an angry crowd with her whip, 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:53.680 pistol or dagger. One of her lovers was a university student, 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:59.520 and she essentially turned his fraternity, the Alimanon, into her 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:04.480 own private army. She parted with them, and they worshiped her. 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:10.160 When Lola set her bulldog on a much respected university 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:14.159 professor of philosophy who had done her no harm, she 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:19.320 unwittingly set in motion her own downfall. The students were 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:26.239 tremendously supportive of the professor. Munich University students revolted, with 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:30.480 clashes erupting between the Alamanen and the rest of campus 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:36.440 who hated her. Ludwig closed the university, which only escalated 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:42.120 the situation. By March eighteen forty eight, pressure was mounting. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:47.160 The specter of the French Revolution still hung over Europe 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:52.080 decades later, and the very real threat of revolution was 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:56.480 enough to knock some sense into Ludwig. He reopened the 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:01.600 university and abdicated, leaving his son Maximilian the Second to 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:06.320 become the new king. Lola fled the country. In less 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.600 than two years, Lola Montes had brought a country to 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:15.520 its knees and permanently changed the geopolitical landscape. Not bad 0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:22.120 for a random girl from Ireland. Lola Montes found herself 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:26.040 stripped of the power she had enjoyed and abused as 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:31.240 King Ludwig's number one mistress. Without her benefactor and protector, 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:36.679 she was suddenly Bavaria's public enemy number one. Lola fled 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:40.120 to Switzerland, where she waited for Ludwig to come for her. 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.160 He never did, but Lola didn't spend too much time 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:48.159 tied up in grief. She dusted herself off and kept 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:52.040 things moving. She moved to London in eighteen forty eight, 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:56.679 and you guessed it met another guy, George Held was 0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:01.359 a twenty one year old officer with serious family money, 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:06.400 as well as an apparent affinity for passionate dancer types. 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:11.320 The two were married quickly, but soon ran into problems 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:16.119 Lola's separation from Thomas James. The ex that she had 0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:21.040 left back in India contained terms that prohibited either of 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:25.520 them from remarrying while the other was still alive. That 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:28.800 meant that Lola and George had to leave the country 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:33.119 to escape bigamy charges. The two lived in France and 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:37.320 Spain for a while, but within two years the marriage 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:41.320 fell apart. At this point, Lola decided to do what 0:24:41.480 --> 0:24:45.719 so many before her also did, try her luck in America, 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:51.520 where she was surprisingly successful in rehabilitating her image for 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:55.000 a time at least. She threw in some acting with 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:59.720 her dance performances, and her shows sold out across the country. 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:03.720 At New York's Broadway Theater, she pulled in over four 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:07.840 thousand dollars in a single week, a box office record 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.719 for that venue. Lola was smart enough to know why 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:16.560 audiences came. They wanted to see the King's scandalous Mistress, 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:21.440 the woman famous for her whip and pistol. The notorious 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:30.560 bedroom adventurer Americans showed up expecting a shameless, talentless royal plaything. Instead, 0:25:30.640 --> 0:25:35.679 they found someone surprisingly refined and tasteful, although she couldn't 0:25:35.720 --> 0:25:38.680 help herself from throwing in some of her old dances 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:43.360 for good measure. She created a show called Lola Montes 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:48.040 in Bavaria, where she played four versions of herself. It 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:51.879 wasn't high art, probably more like a play based on 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:57.040 the pages of US Weekly, but audiences loved it. That 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:02.880 legendary temper still made frequent appearing, especially during her dance performances, 0:26:03.280 --> 0:26:07.919 and some audiences would deliberately provoke her just to watch 0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:13.240 the show within a show. During her American sojourn, Lola 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:17.359 had her own California adventure, which lasted a few years 0:26:17.440 --> 0:26:21.240 and was full of the highs and lows that defined 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:26.600 her life. Rough crowds heckled her, sometimes chasing her off stage. 0:26:27.280 --> 0:26:31.960 There was another marriage and an attempt at domesticity, but 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:36.359 her wild past threatened the new guy, and the union 0:26:36.480 --> 0:26:43.040 ultimately fell apart. In eighteen fifty five, Lola sailed to Australia, 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:49.040 reviving her career by performing for gold miners. As soon 0:26:49.040 --> 0:26:54.120 as she landed in Sydney, she started generating headlines. Her 0:26:54.160 --> 0:26:58.880 notorious spider dance, in which she lifted her skirts high 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:02.520 enough for a viewers to see that she wasn't wearing underwear, 0:27:03.240 --> 0:27:07.760 caused an uproar. A local newspaper declared her show quote 0:27:08.280 --> 0:27:13.439 utterly subversive to all ideas of public morality, and ticket 0:27:13.480 --> 0:27:17.679 sales tanked. In another town, Lola took the bad press 0:27:17.760 --> 0:27:21.800 into her own hands and attacked a newspaper editor with 0:27:22.040 --> 0:27:26.199 a whip. The editor was actually armed with a whip 0:27:26.320 --> 0:27:30.479 of his own, Lola's reputation having preceded her, and the 0:27:30.560 --> 0:27:36.480 altercation escalated into a full blown fight. The stormy ups 0:27:36.520 --> 0:27:41.720 and downs with the Australian public continued, and after nearly 0:27:41.840 --> 0:27:45.719 a year down under, Lola headed back to the US. 0:27:46.440 --> 0:27:50.359 During the voyage back to San Francisco, her manager went 0:27:50.480 --> 0:27:57.760 overboard and drowned. Given Lola's legendary temper, it's been considered 0:27:57.920 --> 0:28:03.760 if he had any ill timed, unwonted feedback for his client, 0:28:04.359 --> 0:28:08.320 and whether a whip had been involved in his untimely 0:28:08.640 --> 0:28:15.399 accidental demise. Back in America, Lola tried repeatedly to resurrect 0:28:15.440 --> 0:28:20.680 her theatrical career, but nothing really took hold. By this point, ever, 0:28:20.760 --> 0:28:27.359 the reinventor Lola pivoted to image rehabilitation. In eighteen fifty seven, 0:28:27.720 --> 0:28:32.240 she began touring the country giving lectures on what Else 0:28:32.680 --> 0:28:39.040 morality and doing charity work helping vulnerable women. Whether her 0:28:39.280 --> 0:28:45.040 late stage religious awakening was sincere or just another performance 0:28:45.560 --> 0:28:49.400 is up for debate. But Lola brought the same fervor 0:28:49.480 --> 0:28:52.840 to this new chapter that she had to everything else 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:59.400 she did. By eighteen sixty, advanced syphilis was destroying her body. 0:29:00.160 --> 0:29:04.520 She died on January seventeenth, eighteen sixty one, at just 0:29:04.920 --> 0:29:10.160 thirty nine years old, which seems almost astonishing given how 0:29:10.240 --> 0:29:15.560 much life she had lived. Lola Monte's international scandal is 0:29:15.640 --> 0:29:20.320 buried in Brooklyn's green Wood Cemetery with a headstone that 0:29:20.480 --> 0:29:27.760 reads simply Missus Eliza Gilbert. It's ironic, but ultimately fitting 0:29:27.960 --> 0:29:32.520 that the woman who tore across continents and came dangerously 0:29:32.600 --> 0:29:37.920 close to toppling an empire would be memorialized with her maiden name. 0:29:38.640 --> 0:29:42.200 It's probably for the best, because when it came to Lola, 0:29:42.560 --> 0:29:45.520 the man on her arm would always be the least 0:29:45.640 --> 0:29:51.240 interesting thing about her. Ludwig outlived her by seven years 0:29:51.800 --> 0:29:57.080 after Lola exited his life and he'd transferred governing responsibilities 0:29:57.120 --> 0:30:02.400 to his son, he returned to his truth passions, poetry, art, 0:30:02.720 --> 0:30:06.680 and beautiful young women. He won back the love of 0:30:06.760 --> 0:30:10.960 his former subjects and spent his final years surrounded by 0:30:11.000 --> 0:30:14.560 the beautiful city that he had been instrumental in creating. 0:30:15.200 --> 0:30:18.400 No doubt his thoughts would drift to his adventures with 0:30:18.480 --> 0:30:22.160 the sultry Spanish dancer. If not the one who got away, 0:30:22.640 --> 0:30:27.800 then the one who very nearly carried him away. Lola 0:30:27.840 --> 0:30:31.920 Montes is one of the most intriguing talked about women 0:30:32.080 --> 0:30:37.280 of the mid nineteenth century. An inveterate liar, Lola's biggest 0:30:37.360 --> 0:30:42.280 and longest sustained lie was her reinvention of herself when 0:30:42.320 --> 0:30:46.520 she had returned from India in eighteen forty one, escaping 0:30:46.560 --> 0:30:51.520 a loveless marriage and an ambitious mother. That reinvention changed 0:30:51.680 --> 0:30:56.480 not only her name, but also her destiny. Lola defied 0:30:56.680 --> 0:31:01.640 social norms and blazed her own trail. Chaotic as it was, 0:31:02.560 --> 0:31:07.760 society's reaction to her highlighted just how threatening a sexually 0:31:07.880 --> 0:31:12.720