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Pretty as a picture
Emilie Charlotte Le Breton may have been born in Jersey in 1853 and buried in St Saviour's churchyard, but her life was played out on a much wider stage.
SHE was the 'It Girl' of the 1800s, the mistress of the future King of England, and a Jersey girl to boot.
But when Lillie Le Breton used her engagement ring to scratch her name into a window pane of the St Saviour's Parish church rectory she was unaware of the fame and fortune life outside the Island was about to bring her.
Emilie Charlotte Le Breton was born to the Dean of Jersey, the Rev William Corbet Le Breton, and his wife, Emilie, on 13 October 1853, a sister for five brothers.
An account of her childhood in her book of 1925, The Days I Knew, openly admits that she was a bit of a tomboy when she was young.
'Living the life of my brothers transformed me into an incorrigible tomboy. I could climb trees and vault fences with the best of them, and I entered with infinite relish into their practical jokes.
'I have a lively recollection of my youngest brother and myself patrolling the old tree-shaded churchyard at midnight (when we were supposed to be in bed) mounted on stilts and draped in sheets, disquieting late passers-by very effectually. This prank continued until someone wrote to the Jersey papers, promising the ghosts at St Saviour's graveyard a dose of cold lead if they appeared again.'
Lillie never went to school - she was educated by a French governess during the day and her brothers' tutor in the evenings. When she was 20 years old she married Edward Langtry, a 30-year-old Irish widower from Southampton.
They said their vows in their travelling clothes at St Saviours' Church early in the morning so as not to miss the tide, and that summer they lived on board his boat, Gertrude.
Their life together was uneventful until Lillie contracted typhoid fever and was sent to recover at an apartment in London's Eaton Place.
It was then that she become known for her looks and was painted by John Everett Millais. She was soon sitting for other artists and during the next few years was introduced to more and more people, her shy husband disliking all the attention she drew.
Lillie became well known for her sense of humour and there were stories of her tobogganing tea-trays down the stairs of Cunliffe Brooks' house in Scotland. She was the subject of much society gossip, and rumours of her affair with the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, were published in society magazine Town Talk, along with allegations that Edward wanted to divorce her.
In 1880, at the age of 26, she met Prince Louis of Battenburg. Born in Austria, the prince was the same age as Lillie and the pair became lovers. She became pregnant with his child and in March 1891 Jeanne-Marie was born in Paris, while Edward was sent on a trip to America.
A close friend of Oscar Wilde, it was upon his advice that Lillie took to the theatre later that year, moving back to London and leaving her daughter in the care of her mother.
She appeared on the stages of several London theatres including the old Haymarket and the Lyceum before making her first provincial tour. About a year after her debut she appeared at the Park Theatre in New York and completed a tour of America, then South Africa.
In 1887 Lillie became an American citizen and finally divorced her husband.
On her return to England, she made appearances in Belladonna, As You Like It and Anthony and Cleopatra.
She returned to Jersey to open the Jersey Opera House with Sydney Grundy's The Degenerates on 9 July 1900.
After the show she addressed the audience: 'I thank you most heartily for the welcome you have given me. I am not surprised at it, for Jersey people are very clannish. We do cling. I promised after your old theatre was burnt down to open your new one, and I have performed my promise though it is in the midst of my holidays. As a matter of fact, I should have been jealous had anyone else opened it, for it seemed to me my right to do so.' She concluded her speech with a quote in Jersey patois.
The next day, an article in the Jersey Times read: 'That the 9th of July will long live in the memory of many is a certainty, for yesterday marked the opening of the new Opera House replacing the old Theatre Royal in Gloucester Street, and such an event is naturally of no small importance in our little community ... last evening's was one of the most brilliant and representative houses ever present at a first-night performance in Jersey.'
In 1909 Lillie wrote her novel All At Sea, then in 1913 appeared in a silent film.
Aside from her love of the theatre, she had a passion for horses and when she was older, owned several race horses.
She lived her last ten years in Monaco in the South of France, where she passed away in the early morning of 12 February 1929. It was by her own request that she was buried in the churchyard next to the rectory where she was born.
She started out life as a girl in a small Island with little chance of making a name for herself. She had little to aid her but her natural beauty and with that, and her colourful personality, she became the King's mistress, an actress, a millionairess and achieved the title of Lady through her second marriage, to Sir Hugo de Bathe in 1899.
Her admirers included the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who said: 'She is so pretty she takes away a man's breath,' and George Bernard Shaw, who complained: 'she has no right to be intelligent, daring and independent as well as lovely.'
This article first appeared in the Jersey Evening Post as part of the Pride in Jersey series, marking the Island's 1204-2004 celebrations.
This article updated: 2003/09/26 12:59:46
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| ......Daily Ditons...... |
Es grands maux les grands r'mièdes.
Desperate diseases, desperate remedies.
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