Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

This week we leave the Plantagenet era behind and journey to the Early Georgian era of London during the reigns of George I and George II.   The early Georgians seem rather tame compared to the antics of George IV when he was Prince of Wales or the many royal mistresses of Charles II & James II.   I never even knew that George II had a mistress until I read Eleanor Herman’s book SEX WITH KINGS.   As far as I knew, the Georgian kings had spent most of their time hating their eldest sons, and pining for Hanover.   The story of Henrietta Howard is fascinating because she was the last person one would expect as a royal mistress.   Circumstances led her to seek the protection of the Prince of Wales, later George II. Henrietta was born Henrietta Hobart in London in 1689.   Her father was a Norfolk landowner and MP who was killed in a duel when she was almost 9.   Before his death, she had led an idyllic childhood at Blickling Hall (the childhood...

She's been called 'The Rottweiler.' Princess Diana famously declared on television that 'there were three of us in this marriage, so it was quite crowded." Prince Charles once declared in a private phone conversation that was heard around the world that her greatest mission in life as been 'to love him' She's been reviled as a homewrecker, pelted with bread rolls, the woman who ruined the fairytale marriage of the century. Was it fate that brought her and Prince Charles together? Who is Camilla Parker Bowles, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall? What is it about this earthy, chain-smoking dame that has enthralled the Prince of Wales for almost forty years? She was born Camilla Rosemary Shand sixty one years ago today on July 17, 1947, making her a Cancer like her rival Princess Diana. As everyone now knows, her great grandmother was Alice, Mrs. George Keppel, mistress of Edward VII. Contrary to the myth, Camilla did not announce to Prince Charles when they fir...

It is Napoleon Week here on Scandalous Women focusing on three women in the Emperor's life; his sister Pauline, his mistress Marie Walewska, and his sister Elizabeth Patterson. Anyone who leaves a comment on either post will be eligible to win a copy of Cupid and the King by Princess Michael of Kent. The winner will be announced on May 23rd, 2008.

"You are ALL to me. You can always make me happy in circumstances apparently unpleasant and miserable... Indeed my dearest angel, the whole happiness of my life depends on you." Charles James Fox to the courtesan Elizabeth Armistead on 7 May 1785. Imagine you are a politician of some renown, in fact some consider you to be one of the greatest politicians ever in English history, you come from an aristocratic family descended from Charles II. Now imagine that you fall madly in love with a woman who has been the mistress of several titled gentlemen, so much in love that you do the unthinkable, and you secretly marry her. Sounds like historical romance doesn't it? Well, in this case the story is real. Charles James Fox, aristocratic man about town, Whig politician and one of the most brilliant and charismatic men of his day, and Elizabeth Armistead, is one of the greatest love stories of the eighteenth century, if not ever. In some ways, it was inevitable that Charles Jame...

'She is so pretty, she takes away a man's breath, she has no right to be intelligent, daring and independent as well as lovely.' George Bernard Shaw on Lillie Langtry Amazing what a little black dress can do. In one night, it catapulted Lillie Langtry from an unknown young woman trying desperately to break into London Society into one of the most well-known women in the Victorian era. Painters clamored to capture her likeness on canvas, people bought her photographs to display, and she captured the heart of not only the future King of England, but the grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Her name was Lillie Langtry. She was born Emilie Charlotte LeBreton on October 13, 1853 on the island of Jersey, part of the Channel Islands, where her father, the Very Reverand William Corbet Le Breton, a clergyman was dean and the rector of St. Saviours Parish Church. She inherited her looks from both her parents. Her father was over 6 feet tall, with a shock of white hair an...