Countess of Landsfeld (1821 –1861), better known by the stage name Lola Montez was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer and courtesan.
In 1846, she arrived in Munich, where she was discovered by and became the mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. When they first met, Ludwig asked her in public if her breasts were real. Her response to the question was to tear off enough of her garments to prove that they were. She soon began to use her influence on the King and this, coupled with her arrogant manner and outbursts of temper, made her extremely unpopular with the Bavarian people (particularly after documents were made public showing that she was hoping to become a naturalised Bavarian subject and be elevated to nobility). Despite opposition, Ludwig made her Countess of Landsfeld on his next birthday, 25 August 1847, and along with her title, he granted her a large annuity.
For more than a year, she exercised great political power, which she directed in favor of liberalism, anti-Catholicism, and in attacks against the Jesuits. Her ability to manipulate the King was so great that the Minister of State, Karl von Abel, was dismissed because he and his entire cabinet had objected to Lola being granted Bavarian nationality and the title of Countess. The students at Munich University were divided in their sympathies, and conflicts arose shortly before the outbreak of the revolutions of 1848, which led the King, at Lola’s insistence, to close the university.
In March 1848, under pressure from a growing revolutionary movement, the university was re-opened, Ludwig abdicated in favor of his son, King Maximilian II, and Montez fled Bavaria. Her career as a power behind the throne was permanently at an end. It seems likely that Ludwig’s relationship with Montez contributed greatly to his forced abdication despite his previous popularity.