Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
journalists and university professors whom he judged subversive. Bavaria was becoming
restrictive, even as French and American democratic ideas flourished elsewhere in Ger-
many.
On 22 March 1848 Ludwig I abdicated in favour of his son, Maximilian II (r 1848-64),
who finally put into place many of the constitutional reforms his father had ignored, such
as abolishing censorship and introducing the right to assemble. Further progressive meas-
ures passed by his son Ludwig II (r 1864-86) early in his reign included welfare for the
poor, liberalised marriage laws and free trade.
LOLA MONTEZ, FEMME FATALE BY JEREMY GRAY
A whip-toting dominatrix and seductress of royalty, Lola Montez (1818-61) would show today's
celebs what sex scandals are all about. Born as Eliza Gilbert in Ireland, to a young British army
officer and a 13-year-old Creole chorus girl, Lola claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of poet
Lord Byron (or, depending on her mood, of a matador). When her actual father died of cholera in
India, her mother remarried and then shipped the seven-year-old Eliza off to Scotland. During her
time in Scotland she was occasionally seen running stark naked through the streets. She then fin-
ished her schooling in Paris and after an unsuccessful stab at acting, reinvented herself as the
Spanish dancer Lola Montez.
She couldn't dance either but her beauty fascinated men, who fell at her feet - sometimes under
the lash of her ever-present riding crop. One time she fired a pistol at a lover who'd underper-
formed, but he managed to escape with his trousers around his knees.
Those succumbing to her charms included the tsar of Russia, who paid her 1000 roubles for a
'private audience'; novelist Alexandre Dumas; and composer Franz Liszt. Liszt eventually tired
of Lola's incendiary temper, locked his sleeping mistress in their hotel room and fled - leaving a
deposit for the furniture Lola would demolish when she awoke.
When fired by a Munich theatre manager, Lola took her appeal to the court of Ludwig I him-
self. As the tale goes, Ludwig asked casually whether her lovely figure was a work of nature or
art. The direct gal she was, Lola seized a pair of scissors and slit open the front of her dress, leav-
ing the ageing monarch to judge for himself. Predictably, she was rehired (and the manager
sacked).
The king fell head over heels for Lola, giving her a huge allowance, a lavish palace and even
the doubtful title of Countess of Landsfeld. Her ladyship virtually began running the country, too,
and when Munich students rioted during the 1848 revolution, Lola had Ludwig shut down the
university. This was too much for the townsfolk, who joined the students in revolt. Ludwig was
forced to abdicate and Lola was chased out of town.
