Free Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Mahon

Digby
     

1807-1881
     
    Being loved is to me as the air that I breathe.
    —JANE DIGBY, WRITING TO KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA
     
     
    Jane Digby was born into an aristocratic family with every conceivable advantage—beauty, money, and privilege—yet she shocked her upper-class world by collecting husbands and lovers like a nineteenth-century Angelina Jolie before ending up in the arms of a desert prince. She had uncanny powers of fascination, luring men with her wit and charm. In her lifetime, no fewer than eight novels were written about her, most of them unflattering portraits. Cutting free from tight-laced English society in exchange for the life of a passionate nomad, she spent her life searching for that one perfect love.

     
    Born in 1807, Jane was much loved and spoiled by her parents and relatives, who hated to discipline their golden-haired little darling. From childhood, Jane showed the reckless courage, independence, and taste for adventure that marked her ancestors, once wandering off with a band of gypsies because she liked their lifestyle. Jane’s delicate beauty of blond ringlets, violet eyes, and creamy complexion was noticed at a very early age, as well as her power to attract the attention of men. It was her beauty that convinced her mother that it was prudent to get her married off as soon as possible.
    At her coming-out ball, Jane met Edward Law, Baron Ellenborough. He was seventeen years her senior and a widower. On paper, it seemed a brilliant match. Ellenborough was a rising politician, handsome, and rich, and his maturity would curb her childish impulses. Flattered by the attentions of an older, experienced man, Jane accepted his proposal. She had visions of the grand life she would lead, the London house, the balls and parties, taking her place as a leading political hostess. On his part, Ellenborough was looking for two things: a decorative partner and an heir. After a short courtship, they were married by special license.
    The old adage “Marry in haste, repent at leisure” could have been written about Jane’s first marriage. No sooner had they shaken the rice out of their shoes than Jane realized why her husband had been called “Horrid” Law at school. Ellenborough was ambitious and totally devoted to his career. He thought nothing of spending long hours at the House of Commons late into the night, writing speeches, and hanging out with his political cronies. Instead of attention and affection, he gave her jewelry, cold diamonds that wouldn’t keep her warm at night. Not only did Jane have to contend with the memory of his late wife, she soon discovered he had a mistress tucked away in Brighton.
    Jane was not a woman who could live without love and passion in her life. If her husband was not willing to give it to her, she would look elsewhere. Dressed in décolleté gowns, Jane fell in with the glittering and sophisticated international society set led by Princess Esterházy. She soon found her cousin George more than willing to console her. When Jane found herself pregnant, she passed the baby off as her husband’s. When her cousin finally dumped her rather than risk his career, Jane moved on to her grandfather’s librarian. He later wrote that she had “blue eyes that would move a saint, and lips that would tempt one to forswear heaven to touch them.”
    It was at one of Almack’s famous Wednesday night balls in late May 1828 that Jane, newly turned twenty-one, met the darkly handsome and courtly Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, an Austrian diplomat who had just been posted to London. The prince was instantly smitten and laid siege to her heart with flowers, poems, and presents until she succumbed to his ardor. It was more than a physical attraction for Jane. The prince had an air of mystery; he literally oozed adventure with his talk of the faraway places he had seen. Jane fell madly, ecstatically in love with him and didn’t care who knew it, practically shouting it from the rooftops.