| Alice Harriet von Kessler | |
|---|---|
 Countess von Kessler in 1868. | |
| Born | Alice Harriet Blosse Lynch (1844-07-17)July 17, 1844 Byculla, Bombay, British India |
| Died | September 19, 1919(1919-09-19) (aged 75) Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne, France |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery |
| Spouse | Count Adolf Wilhelm von Kessler |
| Children | 2 (including Harry von Kessler) |
| Parent(s) | Henry Blosse Lynch Caroline Anne Taylor |
| Relatives | Thomas Kerr Lynch (uncle) |
Countess Alice Harriet von Kessler (née Blosse Lynch) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, singer, and society figure. She was known to be admired by German Emperor Wilhelm II and was rumored to have been his mistress.
Biography
Alice Harriet Blosse Lynch was born on 17 July 1844 in Byculla. Her mother, Caroline Anne Taylor, was the daughter of Colonel Robert Taylor, who served as the king's Minister in Baghdad. Her father, Henry Blosse Lynch of Partry House, was an Anglo-Irish explorer and officer in the Royal Navy. She was a member of the Lynch family, a prominent landed gentry family that was part of the Tribes of Galway.
She was regarded as a great beauty and was known as an accomplished mezzo-soprano singer in society.
On 10 August 1867, she married the German banker Adolf Wilhelm Kessler in Paris. She gave birth to two children, Harry and Wilhelmina. German Emperor Wilhelm II was an admirer of hers. She named the emperor as her daughter's godfather. Rumors circulated that she was Wilhelm II's mistress. Some reports circulated that her children were actually the illegitimate children of the emperor.
Her husband was elevated into the hereditary nobility by Wilhelm II in 1879. Her husband was elevated a second time, as a count, in 1881 by Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz.
She died on 19 September 1919 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
References
- ^ "AESTHETE", Solar Dance, Harvard University Press, 2012-05-01, pp. 41–45, doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674064942.c7, ISBN 978-0-674-06494-2, retrieved 2024-10-20
- ^ "Blosse-Lynch, Alice Harriet (1844-1919)". androom.home.xs4all.nl. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
- Bernard Burke, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland; Harrison & Sons, 45 Pall Mall, London (1912), p.424.
- "Der rote Graf". Der Spiegel. December 19, 1961 – via www.spiegel.de.
- "Harry Graf Kessler und seine Zeit". Vorwärts (in German). Retrieved 2024-10-20.
- Begley, Louis (2011-12-23). "Harry Kessler's Fin de Siècle Diaries". The New York Times.
- ^ Steinberg, Jonathan (2013-05-23). "The Man Who Knew Everybody". London Review of Books. Vol. 35, no. 10. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
- Burke's Irish Family Records. Burke's Peerage & Gentry (UK) Ltd. 15 January 2008. p. 741. ISBN 978-0-85011-050-0.
- ^ "Kessler, Harry Graf von (seit 1881)". Deutsche Biographie.