Lillie Langtry
Considered the greatest beauty of her day, Lillie became the Prince of Wales's official mistress in 1877. She caused such a splash in Society that "perfectly respectable society women had been known to stand on the gilt chairs of ballrooms in order not to miss [her] entrance" (MacColl, pg. 67) On the day that she was presented in Court, Queen Victoria, who usually retired from the festivities early, stayed in order to see "what all of London was talking about." (Evans, pg. 132)

Lillie was not a woman, not a mistress, but a phenomenon. Photographs of her were sold on streetcorners, and other members of Society tried to copy this, in order to gain small ammounts of fame. Despite the fact that she lacked any sort of talent, the performances in which she acted sold out. (Pepper, pg. 62)

In 1881, she was succeeded by Daisy, Countess of Warwick as Edward's mistress, but she remained friends with the Prince. After her husband, Edward Langtry, a man who had been kind enough to get out of his wife's way, died, she remarried Hugo de Bathe in 1899.

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