Lillie Langtry

Lillie Langtry (née Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, nicknamed the Jersey Lily) (13 October 1853 - 12 February 1929) was a British actress born on the island of Jersey in 1853. Her father was the Dean of Jersey.

Related Topics:
Le Breton - 13 October - 1853 - 12 February - 1929 - British - Actress - Jersey

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Emilie married Irish landowner Edward Langtry in 1874. One of his attractions 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. She also had a daughter, born in 1881, Jeanne Marie Langtry (who married Sir Ian Malcolm of Poltalloch in 1902, had four children, and died in 1964), and whose father was definitely not Lillie's husband. The child's actual father was reportedly Lillie Langtry's lover Prince Louis of Battenberg (later 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, 1854-1921), who married Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine in 1884 and became father of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, and grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. A recent biography of Langtry suggests that another of her lovers, Arthur Jones, may have been Jeanne Marie's father, though Prince Louis's son, Lord Mountbatten, always maintained that his father was the one.

Related Topics:
Edward Langtry - 1874 - 1881 - Jeanne Marie Langtry - Ian Malcolm - 1902 - 1964 - Prince Louis of Battenberg - Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine - 1884 - Earl Mountbatten of Burma - Prince Philip

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Lillie's heyday as a society beauty 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. Other lovers included wealthy Britons Robert Peel and George Baird. 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.

Related Topics:
Queen Victoria - Edward VII - Robert Peel - George Baird - Oscar Wilde - James McNeill Whistler - Claret - Winery - California - 1888 - 1906

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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. 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.

Related Topics:
1887 - American citizen - Divorce - California - 1899 - Hugo Gerald de Bathe - Horse-racing - Monte Carlo

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