From Henry VIII To Lola Montez Read online

  But let not your Grace ever imagine, that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledge a fault, where not so much as a thought thereof preceded. And to speak a truth, never prince had wife more loyal in all duty, and in all true affection, than you have ever found in Anne Boleyn: with which name and place I could willingly have contented myself, if God and your Grace’s pleasure had been so pleased. Neither did I at any time so far forget myself in my exaltation or received Queenship, but that I always looked for such an alteration as I now find; for the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation than your Grace’s fancy, the least alteration I knew was fit and sufficient to draw that fancy to some other object. You have chosen me, from a low estate, to be your Queen and companion, far beyond my desert or desire. If then you found me worthy of such honour, good your Grace let not any light fancy, or bad council of mine enemies, withdraw your princely favour from me; neither let that stain, that unworthy stain, of a disloyal heart toward your good grace, ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful wife, and the infant-princess your daughter. Try me, good king, but let me have a lawful trial, and let not my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and judges; yea let me receive an open trial, for my truth shall fear no open flame; then shall you see either my innocence cleared, your suspicion and conscience satisfied, the ignominy and slander of the world stopped, or my guilt openly declared. So that whatsoever God or you may determine of me, your grace may be freed of an open censure, and mine offence being so lawfully proved, your grace is at liberty, both before God and man, not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unlawful wife, but to follow your affection, already settled on that party, for whose sake I am now as I am, whose name I could some good while since have pointed unto, your Grace being not ignorant of my suspicion therein. But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my death, but an infamous slander must bring you the enjoying of your desired happiness; then I desire of God, that he will pardon your great sin therein, and likewise mine enemies, the instruments thereof, and that he will not call you to a strict account of your unprincely and cruel usage of me, at his general judgment-seat, where both you and myself must shortly appear, and in whose judgment I doubt not (whatsoever the world may think of me) mine innocence shall be openly known, and sufficiently cleared. My last and only request shall be, that myself may only bear the burden of your Grace’s displeasure, and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor gentlemen, who (as I understand) are likewise in strait imprisonment for my sake. If ever I found favour in your sight, if ever the name of Anne Boleyn hath been pleasing in your ears, then let me obtain this request, and I will so leave to trouble your Grace any further, with mine earnest prayers to the Trinity to have your Grace in his good keeping, and to direct you in all your actions. From my doleful prison in the Tower, this sixth of May;

  Your most loyal and ever faithful wife, Anne Boleyn

  But Henry refused to change his mind. Anne was tried in the Tower of London by a jury of twenty-seven peers. She was charged with adultery, incest, and high treason. It is possible that Anne may have felt great sorrow during her imprisonment at the thought of her impending death. However, it was reported by William Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, that Anne seemed happy and ready to be done with life. Henry was no longer concerned with his wife’s feelings and on the morning of 19 May, he executed her within the Tower precincts.

  Anne was accompanied by two female attendants and after making her final walk from the Queen’s House to the scaffold, she made a short speech to the crowd:

  “Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.”

  A stroke of a sword severed the head of the one that was perhaps the greatest love of King Henry VIII’s life.

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  2

  Lord Byron & Countess Guiccioli

  Lord Byron was born George Gordon Byron on 22 January 1788. He was born in a house on 24 Holles Street in London, England to Captain John Byron and Catherine Gordon.

  Byron’s father had previously seduced the married Marchioness of Carmarthen and married her after she divorced her husband. Reportedly, his treatment of her was “brutal and vicious”, and she died after giving birth to two girls, only one of whom survived, Byron’s half-sister, Augusta.

  Byron was christened as “George Gordon Byron” at St Marylebone Parish Church. When Byron’s great-uncle, known as the “wicked” Lord Byron, died on 21 May 1798, he became the sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale and inherited the family home in Nottinghamshire.

  Byron inherited a reckless and fiery nature. Throughout his childhood, he was extremely sensitive because of a physical deformity — a lame, misshapen foot. Because of this deformity, as well as his mother’s treatment of him, Byron was headstrong and willful. Described as “a woman without judgment or self-command,” Byron’s mother alternated between spoiling him and annoying him with her unpredictable stubbornness. Byron was disgusted by his mother’s drinking and he often made fun of her for being short and heavy. She would strike back at times and once, in a fit of temper, referred to him as “a lame brat”. However, Byron’s biographer, Doris Langley-Moore, in her 1974 book, Accounts Rendered, portrayed Mrs. Byron as more sympathetic and she showed that Byron’s mother was a faithful supporter of her son and sacrificed her own finances to keep him in luxury at Harrow and Cambridge.

  As a boy, Byron was known for his numerous romantic attachments. At eight years old, he was ardently in love with a young girl named Mary Duff. At ten his cousin, Margaret Parker, excited in him a strange passion. At fifteen, he became enamored of Mary Chaworth, whose grandfather had been killed by Byron’s great-uncle in a duel. Despite his age, he would have married her immediately, but Miss Chaworth was two years older, and absolutely refused to take his commitment to her seriously.

  Byron was deeply disappointed and after a short stay at Cambridge, he left England to visit Portugal and Spain, and also traveled as far east as Greece and Turkey. While in Athens, he wrote the poem to the “maid of Athens” — Miss Theresa Macri, daughter of the British vice-consul. He returned to London and quickly became the most esteemed poet of the day.

  When speaking of Byron, many remarked on his exceptional physical beauty. Sir Walter Scott said of him: “His countenance was a thing to dream of.” People were fascinated by his magnificent eyes, his expressive face and he was thought of as a genius.

  A German wrote “he was positively besieged by women.” From the simplest maids to ladies of the highest rank, he was able to conquer them all with nothing but a wave of his handkerchief.

  Byron wrote of women:

  “I regard them as very pretty but inferior creatures. I look on them as grown-up children; but, like a foolish mother, I am constantly the slave of one of them. Give a woman a looking-glass and burnt almonds, and she will be content.”

  At this time, there was a scandal when Lord Byron began an affair with the very happily married Lady Caroline Lamb. Her husband was the Right Hon. William Lamb, afterward Lord Melbourne, and was intended to be the first prime minister of Queen Victoria. But Caroline was always restless and searching for excitement and because f this, was often described as an emotional fool. She thought herself a poet, and scribbled verses, which her friends politely admired, but secretly disliked.

  When Caroline first met Byron, she exclaimed:

  “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know!” and “That pale face is my fate!”

 
; Caroline had no way of knowing these words would prove to be a prophecy.

  Byron described Caroline as “the cleverest, most agreeable, absurd, amiable, perplexing, dangerous fascinating little being that lives now or ought to have lived 2000 years ago.”

  Of course, it wasn’t long before Byron was as bored with Caroline as he was bored with every other woman in his life. Her romantic nature rivaled his own indifferent nature. Very soon she began forcing her poetry upon him, and becoming annoyed when he would not give her the praise that she desired. Soon enough, “he grew moody and she fretful when their mutual egotisms jarred.”

  Impulsively, Caroline decided to leave Byron, but she soon returned when he did not go after her. She even made her way into his rooms disguised as a boy at one point. There was another instance when she tried to stab herself with a pair of scissors because he had upset her. She also offered her favors to any one who would kill him. Regarding Caroline, Byron himself wrote:

  “You can have no idea of the horrible and absurd things that she has said and done.”

  Not long after that, Byron decided to move and in 1813, he proposed marriage to Miss Annabella Millbanke and was rejected. Byron persisted and in 1815 the two were married. He considered her to be a “piquant, pretty and... a level-headed, unsophisticated country girl.”

  Even before they were married, Byron appears to have had a premonition that he was making a mistake. During the wedding ceremony, he trembled like a leaf, and responded incorrectly to the clergyman. After the wedding was over, he said to her:

  “Miss Millbanke, are you ready?”

  It was a strange mistake for a bridegroom, but his premonition proved correct, as it was obvious they were incompatible from the start of their marriage.

  Lord Byron and his wife separated five weeks after she gave birth to their daughter. She claimed Byron was insane, and began proceedings for a legal separation after taking their daughter. A few months later, Byron labeled his former wife a “moral Clytemnestra”.

  Byron left England, and decided to move to Venice. He expressed his joy at leaving England in these lines:

  Once more upon the waters! yet once more!

  And the waves bound beneath me as a steed

  That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar!

  Meanwhile he was wild in his enjoyment of his new residence. He received a lot of money from his English publisher. He was paid twenty thousand dollars for two cantos of “Childe Harold” and “Manfred.”

  He was on friendly terms with Shelley and Thomas Moore in Italy, but Byron had changed since 1815. He had more of a developed sense of humor, he had lost his spiritual look and he grew determined. He had also lost much of his impulsiveness from childhood and he was finally becoming a man at thirty.

  It was soon after this that he met Countess Teresa Guiccioli. A well-known writer described her as “a star on the stormy horizon of the poet.”

  Teresa was only nineteen years old at the time, and married to a man more than forty years her senior. Unlike the typical Italian woman, she was blonde with dreamy eyes and she was both modest and elegant. Teresa’s relationship with Byron allowed her to discover a passion she had never known and she was in love for the first time.

  Byron was just as passionate towards Teresa and cared for no one but her until his death.

  Teresa and Byron met quite often, and she remained by his side when he had an attack of fever. Byron was quite smitten with Teresa and they exchanged passionate love letters. However, he lived in constant fear that her husband would hire someone to kill him, so she never left his home without his sword and pistols.

  Some of Byron’s most famous work — including Don Juan — belongs to this period. The last cantos was a humorous description of social conditions in England and includes attacks on leading Tory politicians.

  Teresa and Byron began living together and they remained together until Bron sailed for Greece to help them in their struggle for independence. Byron was becoming quite bored with his life in Italy. He supported attempts by the Greek people to free themselves from Turkish rule. Nevertheless, Byron was confused as to what he was supposed to do in Greece, writing:

  “Blaquiere seemed to think that I might be of some use-even here; though what he did not exactly specify.”

  When he left Italy, it caused “passionate grief” from Teresa, who wept openly as he sailed away to Greece. Byron was thirty-five years old at this time.

  In Greece, Byron planned to attack the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, at the mouth of the Gulf of Corinth. Despite his lack of military experience, he hired a fire-master to prepare artillery and he took command of part of the rebel army. However, Byron became ill before they could set sail on 15 February 1824. He was able to make a partial recovery. But in early April he caught a ferocious cold, which was aggravated by therapeutic bleeding that his doctors had insisted upon. Byron then developed sepsis and a horrible fever and it is believed that this treatment, combined with unsterilised medical instruments, may have caused his condition to worsen.

  Tragically, Byron never returned to Italy or to his lover, for on 19 April 1824, he died in the land for which he gave his life.

  Teresa Guiccioli had been living as his wife for just three years, despite the lack of ceremony. This love cleansed and elevated this man of dark and sullen moments. It saved Byron from those moments of self-indulgence that exhausted him. It proved to be an inspiration that at last led him to die for a cause approved by all the world.

  Teresa was unselfish in her love of Byron, unlike the other women who loved him. Emilio Castelar has said:

  “She restored him and elevated him. She drew him from the mire and set the crown of purity upon his brow. Then, when she had recovered this great heart, instead of keeping it as her own possession, she gave it to humanity.”

  Teresa remained alone for twenty-seven years after Byron’s death. She eventually married the Marquis de Boissy as a matter of convenience. Her heart had always belonged to Byron. In 1868, she published her memoirs of the poet and these memoirs are filled with fascinating recollections.

  Her affection for the poet-lover of her youth was as strong as ever up until her death in 1873. She is said to have visited Newstead Abbey, which had once been Byron’s home, before she died.

  And what about Lady Caroline Lamb, who upon meeting Byron exclaimed: “That pale face is my fate!”?

  When she learned that Lord Byron was dead, she became very distraught and collapsed after accidentally meeting with his funeral procession and discovering whose funeral it was. She had violent moods where she broke things or galloped wildly round the park. Her appearance became disheveled, and she ate erratically.

  In her later years, she struggled with mental instability, as well as her abuse of alcohol and laudanum. Her naturally frail body slowly began to shut down and by 1827, she was under the care of a full-time physician. She also retained fluids, a condition then known as dropsy.

  In mid-January, she asked: “Send for William” - her husband - “He is the only person who has never failed me.” Caroline died on 26 January 1828 a few days after William’s arrival at Melbourne House.

  She was buried in Hatfield churchyard on 7 February.

  * * *

  3

  Napoleon & Marie Walewska

  Napoleone di Buonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 to a family of Italian origin in Corsica. His parents were Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino and they were descended from minor Italian nobility of Tuscan origin who had come to Corsica from Liguria in the 16th century.

  Napoleon’s mother was the biggest influence of his childhood. Her discipline helped to control the active child. In January 1779, when he was nine years old, he moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in Autun. In May, he transferred to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château after he was awarded a scholarship. Throughout his childhood, he was a candid Corsican nationalist and supported the state’s independence from Fr
ance. He spoke and read Corsican and Italian. Around the age of ten, he also became fluent in French, but spoke the language with a Corsican accent and never learned how to spell French correctly. As a result, his peers routinely bullied him about his birthplace, short build, mannerisms and his failure to speak French quickly.

  The French Revolution erupted in 1789 and Napoleon was an artillery officer in the French army. He was quite ambitious and took advantage of the opportunities presented to him. He very quickly rose through the ranks of the military and became a general at the age of twenty-four.

  Eventually, Napoleon was granted command of the Army of Italy after he blocked a revolt against the government from royalist rebels. At the age of twenty-six, he began his first military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies and he won virtually every battle. The young man was able to conquer the Italian Peninsula in a year, and he became a war hero in France. In 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that and he orchestrated a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. Napoleon was quite ambitious and his accomplishments and public approval motivated him to work harder and move up more. He became the first Emperor of the French in 1804.