Eliza Lynch
Encyclopedia
Eliza Lynch was the mistress
of Francisco Solano López
, president of Paraguay
.
, County Cork
, Ireland
. She emigrated at the age of ten with her family to Paris
to escape the Great Irish Famine. On the 3rd of June, 1850, she married Xavier Quatrefages, a French officer who was shortly afterwards posted to Algeria
. She accompanied him, but at eighteen years of age, due to deteriorating health, she returned to Paris to live with her mother in the Strafford household. Courtesy of a few fortuitous introductions, she later entered the elite circle surrounding Princess Mathilde Bonaparte
and quickly set herself up as a courtesan
.
She was described as possessing a Junoesque figure, golden blonde hair and a provocative smile. It was perhaps those very qualities that appealed to a visiting South American a year after her return to France. It was 1854 when
Eliza Lynch met Francisco Solano López, son of Carlos Antonio López, president of Paraguay, one the wealthiest small southern nations in continental America. The young general López, in training with the Napoleonic army, kept his country's interests above all as fundamental reasons for his European journey. However, Lynch and López would begin a relationship which led her to return with him during that same year to Paraguay.
and would soon after die of dysentery
due to the poor conditions in the front.
After C.A. López died in 1862, he left his son, F.S. López, as his successor as president. She then became the de facto first lady
, as she and López never actually married. Eliza Lynch would spend the next 15 years as the most powerful woman in the country. While she never married López, her marriage to Quatrefages was annulled on the grounds that it didn't fulfill the legal obligations for it to be considered a lawful marriage (he had not received permission to marry from his commanding officer, and they had no children together); something proven by his remarriage in 1857, a marriage from which he had children.
She is considered to be the reason Lopez was so ambitious. However, in a book she wrote in 1876 while in Buenos Aires
titled "Exposición. Protesta que hace Elisa A. Lynch" (Exposition. Protest made by Elisa A. Lynch) she states that she had actually no knowledge of and didn't meddle in political affairs, rather dedicating her time during the war to helping the wounded and the innumerable families which followed López wherever he went.
on the 1st of March 1870 when López was finally killed.
After the Brazilian forces killed López, they headed towards the civilians in order to capture them. López and Lynch's eldest son Juan Francisco, who had been promoted to Colonel during the war and was 15 years old, was with her. The Brazilian officers told him to surrender, and upon replying "Un coronel Paraguayo nunca se rinde" (A Paraguayan Colonel never surrenders) he was shot and killed by the allied soldiers. At this, Lynch, after jumping and covering her son's body, exclaimed "Esta es la civilizacion que han prometido?" (Is this the civilization you have promised?) (making a reference to the allies claim that they intended to free Paraguay from a tyrant and deliver freedom and civilization to the nation). She then buried both López and her son with her bare hands before being taken as prisoner.
that she would be respected, she decided to return to Paraguay to settle there and try to claim her former property. Upon arrival, however, she was tried and banished from the country permanently by President Gill. It was during these events that she wrote her book.
Eliza Lynch died in obscurity in Paris on 27 July 1886. Over one hundred years later, her body was exhumed and brought back to Paraguay where the dictator General Alfredo Stroessner
proclaimed her a national heroine
. Her remains are now located in the national cemetery "Cementerio de la Recoleta".
and that she provoked him to carry on the futile and bloody war against Uruguay
, Argentina
, and Brazil
.
During her time as First Lady, Eliza Lynch educated Paraguayan society in many European customs and was largely responsible for the introduction of social events and clubs. She is considered a prominent figure of the war for her support of the troops and her willingness to remain with López until the bitter end.
Lynch is known as Madam or Madama Lynch in Paraguay due to her European origins, the fact that she never married López, and the implications of her past as a courtesan.
(without the change of heart from aristocratic elitism to champion of the downtrodden). Due to the melodramatic appeal of her story, many fictionalized accounts of her life were written at the time and up to the present day, but the historical record is somewhat ignored and liberties are taken to maximize dramatic effect. Novels include:
See also The Shadows of Eliza Lynch by Sian Rees (Headline Review (6 January 2003)) and The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne (William Heinemann, London 2003).
"Madame Lynch y Solano Lopez" by Maria Concepcion Leyes de Chavez. Editorial "El Lector" 1996 Paraguay. (Spanish)
"Elisa Lynch" by Hector Varela. Editorial "El Elefante Blanco". Argentina 1997. (Spanish) ISBN 987-96054-8-9
"Pancha Garmendia y Elisa Lynch" Opera en cinco actos by Augusto Roa Bastos. Paraguay 2006. Editorial "Servilibro" (Spanish) ISBN 99925-975-7-7
"La Gran Infortunada" by Josefina Pla. Ediciones "Criterio" Paraguay 2007. (Spanish) ISBN 99925-33-652-7
"Calumnia" La historia de Elisa Lynch y la guerra de la triple alianza by Michael Lillis y Ronan Fanning. Paraguay 2009 (Spanish translation) ISBN 978-99953-907-0-9
"Madame Lynch and Friend" by Alyn Brodsky. Harper and Row Publishers New York 1975. (English) ISBN 0-06-010487-2
The play Visions (1978) by Louis Nowra
depicts Lynch and López leading Paraguay to disaster in the War of the Triple Alliance.
Opera "Madame Lynch" (2008 in progress) libretto by Luigi Cerantola, music by Daniel Luzko. unpublished.
Ballet in two acts "Elisa" (2010) libretto by Jaime Pintos and Carla Castro, music by Nancy Luzko and Danil Luzko. Commissioned by Ballet Municipal de Asuncion
Mistress (lover)
A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...
of Francisco Solano López
Francisco Solano López (politician)
Francisco Solano López Carrillo was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was officially the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López, whom he succeeded...
, president of Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
.
Early life
She was born Eliza Alicia Lynch in CharlevilleCharleville, County Cork
Charleville or Ráth Luirc is a town in north County Cork, Ireland, situated in Ireland's Golden Vale, near the border with County Limerick. It is located on the "Glen" tributary river, which flows into the Maigue River in Co. Limerick...
, County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. She emigrated at the age of ten with her family to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to escape the Great Irish Famine. On the 3rd of June, 1850, she married Xavier Quatrefages, a French officer who was shortly afterwards posted to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. She accompanied him, but at eighteen years of age, due to deteriorating health, she returned to Paris to live with her mother in the Strafford household. Courtesy of a few fortuitous introductions, she later entered the elite circle surrounding Princess Mathilde Bonaparte
Mathilde Bonaparte
Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte, Princesse Française , was a French princess and Salon holder. She was a daughter of Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte and his second wife, Catharina of Württemberg, daughter of King Frederick I of Württemberg.- Biography :Born in Trieste, Mathilde Bonaparte...
and quickly set herself up as a courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
.
She was described as possessing a Junoesque figure, golden blonde hair and a provocative smile. It was perhaps those very qualities that appealed to a visiting South American a year after her return to France. It was 1854 when
Eliza Lynch met Francisco Solano López, son of Carlos Antonio López, president of Paraguay, one the wealthiest small southern nations in continental America. The young general López, in training with the Napoleonic army, kept his country's interests above all as fundamental reasons for his European journey. However, Lynch and López would begin a relationship which led her to return with him during that same year to Paraguay.
Paraguay
Once in Paraguay, Eliza Lynch became López's partner, bearing him six children in total. The eldest of them, Juan Francisco "Panchito" López was born in Asuncion in 1855. The last child she would bear from López, Leopoldo, born in 1867, was born in the midst of the war of the Triple AllianceWar of the Triple Alliance
The Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay...
and would soon after die of dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
due to the poor conditions in the front.
After C.A. López died in 1862, he left his son, F.S. López, as his successor as president. She then became the de facto first lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
, as she and López never actually married. Eliza Lynch would spend the next 15 years as the most powerful woman in the country. While she never married López, her marriage to Quatrefages was annulled on the grounds that it didn't fulfill the legal obligations for it to be considered a lawful marriage (he had not received permission to marry from his commanding officer, and they had no children together); something proven by his remarriage in 1857, a marriage from which he had children.
She is considered to be the reason Lopez was so ambitious. However, in a book she wrote in 1876 while in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
titled "Exposición. Protesta que hace Elisa A. Lynch" (Exposition. Protest made by Elisa A. Lynch) she states that she had actually no knowledge of and didn't meddle in political affairs, rather dedicating her time during the war to helping the wounded and the innumerable families which followed López wherever he went.
Battle of Cerro Cora
Lynch followed López during the entire war and led a group of women, composed of the soldier's wives, daughters, and others, who supported the soldiers called "Las Residentas". It was in this role that she came to be in Cerro CoraBattle of Cerro Corá
The battle of Cerro Corá was fought on 1 March 1870 on a hill-surrounded valley of the same name, in the north-east of Paraguay. This was the last battle in the War of the Triple Alliance....
on the 1st of March 1870 when López was finally killed.
After the Brazilian forces killed López, they headed towards the civilians in order to capture them. López and Lynch's eldest son Juan Francisco, who had been promoted to Colonel during the war and was 15 years old, was with her. The Brazilian officers told him to surrender, and upon replying "Un coronel Paraguayo nunca se rinde" (A Paraguayan Colonel never surrenders) he was shot and killed by the allied soldiers. At this, Lynch, after jumping and covering her son's body, exclaimed "Esta es la civilizacion que han prometido?" (Is this the civilization you have promised?) (making a reference to the allies claim that they intended to free Paraguay from a tyrant and deliver freedom and civilization to the nation). She then buried both López and her son with her bare hands before being taken as prisoner.
Life after the War and Death
After being taken prisoner she was taken on board a ship called "Princesa" (Princess) to Asuncion, where she was banished from the nation by the newly established provisional government, constituted by Paraguayans who had fought in favour of the allied forces and against López army. She returned to Europe with her remaining children; and after five years, and under promises of the then elected Paraguayan president Juan Bautista GillJuan Bautista Gill
Juan Bautista Gill García was President of Paraguay from November 25, 1874 to April 12, 1877.Juan Bautista Gill Garcia del Barrio was born in Asunción. In 1854 he traveled to Buenos Aires where he did his secondary education and medical training, which he failed to finish. His parents were Juan...
that she would be respected, she decided to return to Paraguay to settle there and try to claim her former property. Upon arrival, however, she was tried and banished from the country permanently by President Gill. It was during these events that she wrote her book.
Eliza Lynch died in obscurity in Paris on 27 July 1886. Over one hundred years later, her body was exhumed and brought back to Paraguay where the dictator General Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, whose name is also spelled Strössner or Strößner , was a Paraguayan military officer and dictator from 1954 to 1989...
proclaimed her a national heroine
Folk hero
A folk hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by...
. Her remains are now located in the national cemetery "Cementerio de la Recoleta".
Legacy and Historical Perception
Some people believe that Eliza Lynch was responsible in inducing Francisco Solano López to start the War of the Triple AllianceWar of the Triple Alliance
The Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay...
and that she provoked him to carry on the futile and bloody war against Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
During her time as First Lady, Eliza Lynch educated Paraguayan society in many European customs and was largely responsible for the introduction of social events and clubs. She is considered a prominent figure of the war for her support of the troops and her willingness to remain with López until the bitter end.
Lynch is known as Madam or Madama Lynch in Paraguay due to her European origins, the fact that she never married López, and the implications of her past as a courtesan.
Fiction
Eliza Lynch is often noted as the Paraguayan predecessor to the Argentine EvitaEva Perón
María Eva Duarte de Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.She was born in the village of Los Toldos in...
(without the change of heart from aristocratic elitism to champion of the downtrodden). Due to the melodramatic appeal of her story, many fictionalized accounts of her life were written at the time and up to the present day, but the historical record is somewhat ignored and liberties are taken to maximize dramatic effect. Novels include:
- William Edmund BarrettWilliam Edmund BarrettWilliam Edmund Barrett was an American author.Born in New York City, he studied at Manhattan College. He married Christine M. Rollman on February 15, 1925. He worked as an aeronautics consultant with the Denver Public Library from 1941 on. He received a citation from Regis College in 1956...
, Woman on Horseback (1938) - Graham ShelbyGraham ShelbyGraham Shelby is a British historical novelist. He worked as a copywriter and book-reviewer before embarking on a series of historical novels, mainly set in the twelfth century.-List of works:...
, Demand the World (1990) - Anne EnrightAnne EnrightAnne Enright is a Booker Prize-winning Irish author. She has published essays, short stories, a non-fiction book and four novels. Before her novel The Gathering won the 2007 Man Booker Prize, Enright had a low profile in Ireland and the United Kingdom, although her books were favourably reviewed...
, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2003) - Lily TuckLily TuckLily Tuck is an American novelist and short story writer whose novel The News from Paraguay won the 2004 National Book Award. Her novel Siam was nominated for the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction...
, The News from Paraguay (2004), which won the National Book AwardNational Book AwardThe National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
for that year.
See also The Shadows of Eliza Lynch by Sian Rees (Headline Review (6 January 2003)) and The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne (William Heinemann, London 2003).
"Madame Lynch y Solano Lopez" by Maria Concepcion Leyes de Chavez. Editorial "El Lector" 1996 Paraguay. (Spanish)
"Elisa Lynch" by Hector Varela. Editorial "El Elefante Blanco". Argentina 1997. (Spanish) ISBN 987-96054-8-9
"Pancha Garmendia y Elisa Lynch" Opera en cinco actos by Augusto Roa Bastos. Paraguay 2006. Editorial "Servilibro" (Spanish) ISBN 99925-975-7-7
"La Gran Infortunada" by Josefina Pla. Ediciones "Criterio" Paraguay 2007. (Spanish) ISBN 99925-33-652-7
"Calumnia" La historia de Elisa Lynch y la guerra de la triple alianza by Michael Lillis y Ronan Fanning. Paraguay 2009 (Spanish translation) ISBN 978-99953-907-0-9
"Madame Lynch and Friend" by Alyn Brodsky. Harper and Row Publishers New York 1975. (English) ISBN 0-06-010487-2
The play Visions (1978) by Louis Nowra
Louis Nowra
Louis Nowra is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist.He is best known as one of Australia's leading playwrights...
depicts Lynch and López leading Paraguay to disaster in the War of the Triple Alliance.
Opera "Madame Lynch" (2008 in progress) libretto by Luigi Cerantola, music by Daniel Luzko. unpublished.
Ballet in two acts "Elisa" (2010) libretto by Jaime Pintos and Carla Castro, music by Nancy Luzko and Danil Luzko. Commissioned by Ballet Municipal de Asuncion
See also
- Francisco Solano LopezFrancisco Solano López (politician)Francisco Solano López Carrillo was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was officially the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López, whom he succeeded...
- War of the Triple AllianceWar of the Triple AllianceThe Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay...
Sources
- Margaret Nichols "The World's Wickedest Women".pps 34-35
- Ed Strosser and Michael Prince "Stupid Wars" .pps unknown