Eliza Lynch
| Eliza Alicia Lynch | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First Lady of Paraguay | |
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In office 16 October 1862 – 1 March 1870 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
19 November 1833 Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 27 July 1886 (aged 52) Paris, France |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | none |
| Spouse(s) | Xavier Quatrefages Francisco Solano López (1854–1870; "de facto") |
| Children |
|
| Occupation | First Lady |
Eliza Alice Lynch Lloyd (Cork, Ireland, 19 November 1833 – Paris, France, 25 July 1886) was an Irish woman, the mistress-wife of Francisco Solano López, president of Paraguay.
The most vilified woman in Latin-American history, she was dubbed as "an ambitious courtesan" who seduced the heir apparent of the Government of Paraguay, Francisco Solano López, turning him into a bloodthirsty dictator. Yet all those accusations were part of the propaganda-warfare during the Paraguayan War, by the allies and are disproven. Nowadays, she is considered as a "National Heroine" of Paraguay.
She was born Eliza Alicia Lynch in Cork, County Cork, Ireland. She was the daughter of John Lynch, MD. (her father) and Jane Clarke Lloyd, (her mother, who was from a family of officers of the Royal Navy). She emigrated at the age of ten with her family to Paris to escape the Great Irish Famine. On 3 June 1850, she married Xavier Quatrefages, a French officer who was shortly afterwards posted to Algeria. She accompanied him, but at eighteen years of age, due to deteriorating health, she returned to Paris to live with her mother in the Strafford household. Courtesy of a few fortuitous introductions, she later entered the elite circle surrounding Princess Mathilde Bonaparte and quickly set herself up as a courtesan.
Eliza Lynch was described as possessing a figure, golden blonde hair and a provocative smile. It was perhaps those very qualities that appealed to a visiting South American a year after her return to France. It was in 1854 that Eliza Lynch met General Francisco Solano López, son of Carlos Antonio López, president of Paraguay. The young general, in training with the Napoleonic army, regarded his country's interests above all as fundamental reasons for his European journey. However, Lynch and López would begin a relationship which led her to return with him during that same year to Paraguay.
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