Social Victorians/People/Lily Langtry

Also Known As

• Lily Le Breton
• Lillie Le Breton
• Lily Langtry
• Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe
• The "Jersey Lily"
• Family name: Le Breton, Langtry

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Acquaintances

• Frank Miles
• Thomas Heron Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh
• Rupert Potter
• Edward Poynter
• Edward Burne-Jones

Friends

• Oscar Wilde
• John Everett and Effie Millais
• Henrietta Labouchère (and then after May 1883 enemy)
• William Gladstone (1809–1898)

Sexual Partners

• Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
• Lord Shrewsbury
• Prince Louis of Battenberg
• Frederick Gebhard

Timeline

1874 March 9, the day of Lily le Breton Langtry's wedding. In her memoirs, Lady Lucy ("Lucille") Gordon Duff writes about Lily Langtry. Her family had just moved to Jersey. Lucy Christiana Wallace was 11 years old, and Lily le Breton had just married:

When we arrived the harbour was decorated with flags and garlands of flowers were hanging from all the windows. We were told it was to celebrate the wedding of the Dean's daughter, Lily le Breton, the most beautiful girl in Jersey, who had been married that morning to Mr. Langtry and had gone away to London “to be a great lady”.

We were both very curious about this lovely creature, stories of whose romantic career as a court beauty used to be circulated all over the Island. We were always hearing of what she had worn at the opera, of how she had set a new fashion in hats, and of how often the Prince of Wales had danced with her at the Devonshire House ball. When she used to come back to stay at hex old home we were all agog with [24/25] excitement, and receptions were given in her honour at Government House* Nearly half the population used to go down to the Quay to cheer the boat which brought her ashore, and flags would be flying all along her route. It was almost like the arrival of a queen.

Elinor and I determined that come what might we would see the "Jersey Lily” and find out whether she was as beautiful as we had been told. It required some ingenuity on our part, as although we were very friendly with the Governor's family and his daughter, Ada, was our special playmate, we were too young to attend any of the formal parties at which Mrs. Langtry would be a guest. In the end we evolved the plan of hiding in the rooms in which she would take off her cloak at one of the receptions.

We stole out of our beds and dressing in the dark for fear of arousing suspicion if a light were noticed in our room, made our way to Government House. Ada let us in, and we crept upstairs like conspirators and hid under the dressing-table, draping the folds of white muslin, with which it was trimmed, so that they completely screened us, leaving- only a tiny peephole.

We had some time to wait, for Lily Langtry always made her entry last of all the guests at a party, and one by one the women came upstairs to remove cloaks and shawls. It was the first time we had seen most of them in evening dress, and we had a great deal of fun comparing their dresses.

Just as we were beginning to feel intolerably cramped from our uncomfortable position crouched on the floor, a buzz of conversation and a light and very musical laugh on the stairs announced the arrival of Lily Langtry, and a moment later she came into the room.

I never saw any woman more divinely lovely than [25/26] she looked in her white dress, with a scarlet flower in her hair nestling against one ear. She came and sat down at the dressing-table while she arranged her dress and pinned a beautiful diamond brooch on one shoulder. We were so close to her that we dared not move one inch, for fear of touching her dress and giving away the secret of our presence, but even through the folds of the muslin curtain we could see her perfect beauty. There was an extraordinary radiance about Lily Langtry that I have never seen in any other woman, and there was something so vital and magnetic in her personality that a room seemed empty when she left it. (24–26)

1876, Lily Langtry and her husband moved to London.

1877, late, to June 1880, Lily Langtry and the Prince of Wales had a sexual relationship.

1879 July, Lily Langtry and Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, Lord Shrewsbury began a sexual relationship; he was 18 and she was 25.

1880 January, Lily Langtry and Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, Lord Shrewsbury planned to run away together, but he began a relationship with Ellen Palmer-Morewood, who was married and whom he married 21 June 1882, and whose son Charles John Alton Chetwynd-Talbot was born 2 months later, on 8 September 1882.

1881 March 8, Lily Langtry was in Paris with Arthur Jones for the birth of Jeanne Marie Langtry; the pregnancy had ended the relationship with the Prince of Wales. Jones was probably Jeanne Marie's father.

1882, Pears Soaps used Lily Langtry's face in its advertising, making her "the first celebrity to endorse a commercial product."

1897 May 13, Lily Langtry successfully obtained an American divorce from Edward Langtry by default because he failed to respond to the summons.

1899 July 27, Lily Langtry and Hugo Gerald de Bathe married.

1907, Hugo Gerald de Bathe's father died and he became Lord de Bathe.

Demographics

• Nationality: British, Island of Jersey

Family

• Lily Langry (13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929)
• Edward Langtry (14 February 1846 – 15 October 1897)
• Arthur Clarence Jones (1854–1930), unmarried relationship
  1. Jeanne Marie Langtry (8 March 1881 – )
• Hugo Gerald de Bathe (1871–1940)

Archives and Memoirs

• Langtry, Lily. The Days I Knew.
• Langtry, Emilie Charlotte. The life of Mrs. Langtry, the Jersey Lily, and queen of the stage. Pinder & Howes Leeds, 1882.