Frieda Lawrence

Frieda Lawrence
Frieda Weekley c. 1901
Born	Frieda Freiin von Richthofen (1879-08-11)August 11, 1879 Metz, Germany
Died	August 11, 1956(1956-08-11) (aged 77) Taos, New Mexico, USA

Frieda Lawrence (August 11, 1879 – August 11, 1956), born Frieda Freiin von Richthofen, was a German literary figure mainly known for her marriage to the British novelist D. H. Lawrence. She was a distant relation of Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron".

Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen (also known as Frieda Weekley, Frieda Lawrence, and Frieda Lawrence Ravagli) was born in Metz. Her father was Baron Friedrich Ernst Emil Ludwig von Richthofen (1844-1916), an engineer in the German army, and her mother was Anna Elise Lydia Marquier (1852-1930). She was a fifth cousin, once removed, of German air ace Manfred von Richthofen. Though their last common ancestor was born in 1661, the Red Baron's fame nonetheless attached to Frieda's reputation in wartime England.

In 1899, she married a British philologist and professor of modern languages, Ernest Weekley, with whom she had three children, Charles Montague (born 1900), Elsa Agnès (born 1902) and Barbara Joy (born 1904). They settled in Nottingham, where Ernest worked at the university. During her marriage to Weekley she started to translate German literature, mainly fairy tales, into English.

In 1912, she met D. H. Lawrence, a former student of her husband. She soon fell in love with him and the pair eloped to Germany, Frieda leaving her children behind. During their stay, Lawrence was arrested for spying and, after the intervention of Frieda's father, the couple walked south, over the Alps to Italy. Following her divorce from Weekley, Frieda and Lawrence married in 1914. They intended to return to the continent, but the outbreak of war kept them in England, where they endured official harassment and censorship. They also struggled with limited resources and D.H. Lawrence's already frail health.

Leaving post-war England at the earliest opportunity, they travelled widely, eventually settling at the Kiowa Ranch (now D. H. Lawrence Ranch) near Taos, New Mexico and, in Lawrence's last years, at the Villa Mirenda, near Scandicci in Tuscany. After her husband's death in Vence, France in 1930, she returned to Taos to live with her third husband, Angelo Ravagli. The ranch is now owned by the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.