Jane Digby

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caption = Artist Joseph Karl Stieler (1831)
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birth_date = birth date|1807|4|3|df=yes
birth_place = Dorset, England, UK
death_date = death date and age|1881|8|11|1807|4|3|df=yes
death_place = Damascus, Syria
death_cause = Heart attack
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spouse = Edward Law
Baron Venningen
Spyridon Theotokis
Abdul Midjuel el Mezrab
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parents = Admiral Sir Henry Digby
Lady Jane Elizabeth (née Coke)
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Jane Elizabeth Digby (3 April 1807 – 11 August 1881) was an English aristocrat who lived a scandalous life of romantic adventure.

Family

Jane Digby was born in Holkham Hall, Norfolk, daughter of Admiral Henry Digby and Lady Jane Elizabeth "née" Coke, a renowned beauty. She was often called "Jenny", or "Aurora", the latter bestowed upon Jane by one of her admirers. [Mrgaret Fox Schmidt"Passion's Child", page31] Jane's father seized the Spanish treasure ship Santa Brigada in 1799 and his cut established the family fortune. As captain of HMS Africa he participated under Admiral Nelson's command in the Battle of Trafalgar. His estate, Minterne Magna, was inherited. Jane's maternal grandfather was Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. Pamela Churchill Harriman was the great-great-niece of Jane Digby.

Marriages, scandal, and affairs

Notoriously promiscuous through much of her lifetime, she was first married to Edward Law, 2nd Baron Ellenborough (later Earl of Ellenborough) on 15 October, 1824 who became Governor General of India. At the time of her marriage, Jane was described as tall, with a perfect figure. She had a lovely face, pale-gold hair, wide-spaced dark blue eyes, long dark lashes, and a wild rose complexion. [Schmidt, page35] They had one son, Arthur Dudley, who died in infancy. After affairs with her cousin, George Anson, and Felix Schwarzenberg, an Austrian statesman, she was divorced from Lord Ellenborough in 1830 by an act of Parliament. This caused considerable scandal at the time. Jane had two children with Felix before he left her in Paris, a daughter, Mathilde "Didi" (born 12 November 1829 ) in Basel, Switzerland and a son Felix (born December 1830) who died just a few weeks after his birth.

She then moved on to Munich and became the lover of Ludwig I of Bavaria, but had a son, Heribert, by the Bavarian Baron Karl von Venningen, whom she married in a relationship based on convenience in 1832. Heribert was born on 27 January1833 in Palermo, Sicily where Jane was residing at the time with her husband.

Soon she found a new lover in the Greek count Spyridon Theotokis. Venningen found out and challenged Theotoky in a duel. He wounded him but generously released her from the marriage, took care of her children, and remained her friend. Jane married Theotoky and they moved to Greece. Greece's King Otto (son of Ludwig I of Bavaria), became her lover. The marriage to Theotoky ended in divorce after the fatal fall of their 6 year old son, Leonidas.

Next came an affair with an Albanian general, acting as 'queen' of his brigand army, living in caves, riding horses and hunting in the mountains. She walked out on him when he was unfaithful.

Life in Syria

At age forty-six, Jane travelled to the Middle East, and fell in love with Sheikh Abdul Midjuel el Mezrab (also known as Shaikh Mijwal). Midjuel was the sheikh of the Mazrab section of the Sba'a, a well-known sub-tribe of the great 'Anizah tribe of Syria. Although he was seventeen years her junior, the two were married under Muslim law and she took the name Jane Elizabeth Digby el Mezrab, living with him for quite some time in the Bedouin style and adopting Arabic dress. Half of each year was spent in the nomadic style, living in goat-hair tents, while the rest was spent in the palace she built at Medjuel in Damascus.

In her later years Jane became friends with Richard and Isabel Burton while he was the British consul at Damascus, as well as Abd al-Kader al-Jazairi, a prominent leader of the Algerian revolution living in exile in Damascus at the time. She died of a heart attack in Damascus on 11 August, 1881.She was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Dasmascus. Upon her footstone is her name, written in Arabic. After her death a young H. R. P. Dickson and his family moved in to her house.

Her bible was inscribed: "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

References

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External links

* [http://www.lind.org.zw/people/janedigby/JaneDigby.htm Jane Digby Website]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/ thePeerage.com]