If legends, gossip and rumors cannot always be proved beyond a doubt; the inferences made
from leases, electoral registers and census records, do not always prove conclusive, and here is why:
Property leases
"Married women were not allowed to own and control property in their own right", not until The Married Women’s Property Act 1882.
So, the probability of finding Lillie Langtry's name (Emilie Charlotte Le Breton or Langtry) on a property lease, before 18 August 1882, is close to zero ...
Electoral registers
Likewise, you wouldn't find a woman's name on an electoral register - not until The Representation of the People Act 1918 had been passed by Parliament ...
"This Act widened suffrage by abolishing almost all property qualifications for men and by enfranchising women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications."
Census
Alas! Lillie Langtry's name did not appear on the 1881 Census in connection with 103, Alexandra Road, Leighton House.
A couple of local historians - not to mention their laureate MBE mentor - immediately saw this as irrefutable proof that she never
lived there, or that the Prince "ever visited" the place except the absence of her name in the census did not, per se, prove anything. Not conclusively ...
Firstly, we do not know exactly when she lived, slept, stayed or visited the house. If before, on or after 1881 - and for how long.
Secondly, "in every census year, an enumerator delivered a form to each household for them to complete. The heads of household were instructed to give details of everyone who slept in that dwelling on census night, which was always a Sunday. The forms completed by each household, known as schedules, were collected a few days later by the enumerator."
In other words, the procedure was prone to omissions (falsifications if you prefer) and therefore wrong inferences!
Secrecy and reputation management
"Bertie" - the Prince of Wales ...
in "Bertie - A Life of Edward VII", p. 208, Prof. Jane Ridley/Random House Inc., 2013
in "Lillie Langtry: Manners, Masks, and Morals", p. 9, Laura Beatty/Chatto & Windus, 1999
Sir Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys (1837-1924), was another "reputation manager" who served as a trusted confidant of the Prince of Wales, ensuring that any potential scandals were swiftly dealt with.
Sir Francis Knollys Lord Esher
An example: Edward Langtry is said to have kept compromising letters written by the Prince of Wales - and addressed to his wife Lillie.
When he passed away in 1897, these letters were found by his landlord (possibly Mr Cornellius Collins, with whom Edward had lodged at 9 Queen's Terrace, Southampton). It is alleged that he tried to use them to blackmail the Prince.
Sir Francis Knollys managed to retrieve the letters. It is nor known if he did so with, or without, a ransom. Probably without ...
Following the death of King Edward VII, The Viscount (Knollys) diligently carried out the monarch's final wishes by destroying all confidential correspondence and documents in the Royal Archive related to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
All papers dating back from 1863 to 1910 were meticulously destroyed.
Jane Ridley - a Professor of Modern History and the author of "Bertie" - gives a different angle to "royal love nests" and the Prince's reputation managers' tactics ...
in "Bertie - A Life of Edward VII", p. 212, Prof. Jane Ridley/Random House Inc., 2013
Press constraints
Consider, for example, the fate of Mr. Adolphus Rosenberg, a scandal-mongering journalist and publisher of the "Town Talk"...
Rosenberg started
the rumour that Edward Langtry, Lillie's husband, was planning to
divorce her; naming H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Lord Lonsdale and Lord Londesborough as the co-respondents ...
As if that was not enough, he wrote another defamatory piece about a genteel lady -Cornwallis West - affectionately known as "Patsy" - a former inamorata of the Prince and a close friend of Lillie ...
Rosenberg suggested that Patsy had "such a mania - to meet the demand for her pictures - that she built a little photographic studio in each corner of her garden in Eaton Place - and between them, she ran, changing her clothes as she went".
Her husband did not think that was funny, and in less than a week he had served Rosenberg with a lawsuit.
"Patsy" Cornwallis-West
In the interim, the Prince of Wales instructed his attorney George Lewis to initiate legal proceedings against Rosenberg. The outcome was predictable (...)
George Lewis - attorney to the Prince of Wales and Lillie Langtry
(courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)
Rosenberg was sued, tried, found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison. "I regret that I cannot add hard labour!" - said Mr. Justice Hawkins. The judge.
Every newspaper and magazine in the country knew that, in future, they had to be much more circumspect - and avoid mentioning certain names OR ...
So, can we rely on newspaper stories of the period? Particularly after the 1879 Rosenberg trial? Probably not ...
Faulty Research and/or Hidden Agendas
Claims were disseminated by two local
historians and a laureate genealogist - both in the local (Camden New Journal) and the mainstream Press (The Times and The Daily Telegraph) - and the Wikipedia subsequently -
that Lillie Langtry's association with Leighton House was "a myth" invented to try to save the house from demolition ...
A ruse concocted by a Greek "actress" (Electra Yaras) with the help of Adrienne Corri (the well-known actress).
Their supporting "evidence", if any, was:
(1) That the "first reference" to
Lillie Langtry and Leighton House (Evening Standard) dated
back to April 1965 ; which was around the time the
house was earmarked for demolition - you get the drift ...
(2) That Lillie's name did not appear in the 1881 Census in relation to 103 Alexandra Road - or any relevant electoral registers. Please refer to the paragraph above on "Census" and "Electoral registers" (...)
But, they overlooked the following facts:
(1) The first known reference to Lillie and Leighton House in the Press dated back to May
1950 NOT April 1965, as they assumed- and possibly as far
back as 1914.
(2) The
lady in question (Electra Yaras) was not an "actress" - or a liar for that matter - and she was not personally acquainted with Adrienne Corri either which, for ulterior motives, they seemed to have taken for granted ...
These points - and others - are fully addressed elsewhere on this blog.
Please refer to the list of contents on the top (right hand-side) .
