Mathilde de Morny – Queen Hortense’s unconventional grandchild (Part two)
Since turning 16, Mathilde had joined the very exclusive Cercle, a so-called “love society”, frequented by French and Spanish aristocracy. All of their correspondence was in code to prevent anything from leaking. Mathilde once performed acrobatics on a trapeze while they were naked. The Cercle was also very well known for bisexual and homosexual relationships. Mathilde’s first love was Princess Catherine Poniatowska, who also happened to be their niece.1 as the daughter of their (illegitimate) half-sister, Leopoldina Louise le Hon.2 Meanwhile, their family was looking for a husband for Mathilde.
The first option was Lord Hume, whom Mathilde considered “a very handsome boy, he adored me.”3 Nevertheless, his proposal was turned down. Mathilde met Maria Christina of Austria, who had married King Alfonso XII in 1879 after the death of his first wife, Mercedes. They reportedly had a soothing effect on the Queen, and they knew how to speak German, which helped. Mathilde planned to run away with Princess Catherine, but Catherine believed that marriage was not a prison but rather a door to independence.4 Mathilde would soon have no more choice – a groom had been chosen.
His name was Jacques Godart, 6th Marquis de Belbeuf, and they had met several times before. He was 13 years older than Mathilde. The press jumped on the engagement, and several articles were written about Mathilde’s wedding dress. It was made of velveteen, which was a new invention at the time. The Duke of Sesto ensured that Mathilde was well-off financially, and the wedding took place on 11 December 1881. Queen Maria Christina sent them a brooch in the form of a diamond shell with a pearl emerging, which they wore during the wedding banquet.5 The newlyweds settled in Paris, where Mathilde immediately had a trapeze installed in their rooms. Soon, a circle of secretly lesbian women formed around Mathilde and their trapeze practices. In public, Mathilde was a celebrity, and they were also an easy target for the early paparazzi. They also became a sculptor and a painter, devoting their afternoons to art. In the early years of their marriage, Mathilde had a miscarriage after falling from their horse.
Mathilde was in Spain in 1885 when King Alfonso XII lay dying. Mathilde was struck with grief when he died on 25 November 1885, leaving behind a pregnant widow. The couple had two daughters, but if the child proved to be a boy, he would be King from birth. When Mathilde’s grandmother died shortly after the King’s death, they fell ill and had to take the waters at Salies. While there, their husband wrote to ask “his little darling” when they would return home.6 The following year, sthey celebrated their 23rd birthday in a well-known meeting place for homosexuals in Montmartre, earning them the nickname “Mount Lesbos.”7
Some of their adventures got them into trouble as well. Mathilde had an affair with a young gardener and, during a moment of “amorous rage”, had bitten off the woman’s clitoris. To buy the woman’s silence, they had to ask another mistress, Madame Elzéar, for help.8 Madame Elzéar gave them diamonds, which Mathilde pawned to pay off the gardener. Meanwhile, their husband had grown fed up with them, and a news article on 25 April 1887 announced their separation. Mathilde settled in a “sumptuously furnished hotel.”9
In 1889, London was rocked by its first homosexual scandal and in 1885, male homosexuality had been made a crime.All homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were illegal.'>10 However, lesbianism simply “didn’t exist.”11 Paris became a refuge for those persecuted in their home countries, if they were wealthy enough to afford it. Meanwhile, Mathilde had reportedly fallen in love with a maid, whom they had paid handsomely. When the maid died suddenly, it was rumoured that Mathilde went to the morgue and threw themself upon the body, shouting, “I want to enjoy it again!”12 The Paris rumour mill went wild.

Mathilde and their family were invited to the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, and even their husband went along as he often did for official functions. The lavish functions swept even Mathilde off their feet, but only their brother and their mother had seats inside the cathedral. For Mathilde, the coronation brought about a change. It would be the last official ceremony attended by them. The same year, on 9 August, Mathilde’s mother died of pleurisy at the age of 58. Mathilde had rushed to France from Tangiers, where they had begun to spend every summer. Their stepfather and their brothers were also by their mother’s side when she died. Their mother was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Mathilde’s quick return to society gave rise to the term “Sesto mourning”, which became synonymous with not caring.
The death of their mother marked a turning point in Mathilde’s life. After 1900, they threw out the ambiguous clothes and wore exclusively men’s clothes, down to the folded overcoat on their arm. They began to wear their hair almost cropped, and they hid their breasts with a rubber band. It is likely that they also had their breasts removed after having their ovaries removed. They demanded that their servants start calling them “Monsieur le Marquis”, and their younger friends called them “Uncle Max.” Only a select few still call them by their childhood nickname, Missy.13
Liane de Pougy, one of Mathilde’s lovers, wrote, “She dresses like a man, shaves her hair, smokes big cigars… She had traded her name of Mathilde for the debonair designation of Uncle Max.”14
Part three coming soon.
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