A seductress’ Shimla connection

Shriniwas Joshi

Barnes and Noble is the largest retail bookseller in the United States. It has 640 retail stores in all 50 states of the USA. One can go in the store, read a book, take coffee and snacks on payment and come out. It is not necessary to buy a book. I totally enjoy browsing books in the bookstore at Charlotte. I purchased one book from there titled ‘Scandalous Women’ by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. The reason for purchasing the book was that it carried the story of Lola Montez (see photo).

Lola Montez! Who? The story on Lola starts with: ‘Lola Montez was the International Bad Girl of the Victorian Era bringing havoc on three continents.’ And one of the continents was Asia; it was India in Asia; in India it was Shimla city. Emily Eden, sister of Lord Auckland, wrote in her diary on September 8, 1839: “Simla is much moved just now by the arrival of Mrs J, who has been talked of as great beauty all the year and that drives every other woman with any pretensions in that line, quite distracted.”

Lola actually started life awith a less exotic name Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert at the time of her birth in 1820. When she grew up, her mother wanted to marry her to a ‘rich and gouty old gentleman of 60 years’. Eliza instead eloped with Lieutenant Thomas James and married him. She came to Shimla in 1839 with her husband when he was posted here. Upon her arrival, Marie James stunned the men who mattered. She was acclaimed as a ravishing beauty. Whenever she passed through The Mall in a palanquin, all eyes remained glued to her face. She ‘looked like a star among all others’. Her zip and zing became the talk of the town. Her jottings on Shimla are amusing: “Lots of trees on the way to Simla are rhododendrons. There are monkeys all over Simla climbing on pine trees. The hill princes used cows’ tails to whisk flies. From Simla you can see ridges of the foothills fading away and finally disappearing into the haze of heat over the plains.”

While she was in Shimla, Captain Craigie, her stepfather, gave her ample money with which she could make a trip to England. During the long journey home, she met a dashing army officer Charles Lennox with whom she openly flirted. Her husband, filed for divorce, citing her adultery with Lennox. Divorce was allowed in 1842 and Lennox too dumped her. She had to survive so she decided to be a dancer. She learned flamenco and Spanish dances during her six-month sojourn in Spain and was back in London and named herself as ‘Maria Dolores de Porris y Montez’ which means ‘the proud and beautiful daughter of a noble Spanish family’.

Lo! Lola Montez was born.

Lola’s debut at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London was a grand success. The papers, however, dubbed her as fraud. Her contract was cancelled. It was a fact that she had no sense of timing or rhythm but she was captivating with lustrous dark hair, ivory skin and magnificent bosom plus striking blue eyes. Her most famous dance was Tarantula in which she revealed a great deal of leg, shocking the audience of 2 the day.

This ‘utterly shameless woman’ passed into history in Bavaria (now in Germany). The sexagenarian monarch of Bavaria, Ludwig, got smitten by Lola and she authoritatively performed the role of being his mistress for two years. The affair between the two became an international sensation. She was forced to leave Bavaria and the king had to abdicate in his son’s favour but amorous Ludwig continued to send an annual allowance of twenty thousand florins to her for several years.

She came to New York in America and took to a new profession of giving lectures to the audience and was acclaimed as a formidable lecturer. ‘The Boston Bee’ declared her the ‘unquestioned Queen of the lecture room.’ She also wrote a few books, including her autobiography and died at the age of 41 of pneumonia and is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.