Cora Pearl (1835-1886)Born Emma Elizabeth Crouch in England, she became the most famous courtesan--the Queen of Tarts--of the French 2nd Empire. Her clients were the wealthiest and most powerful men of her day, whom she called collectively her “Golden Chain” of lovers.

She became a prostitute, and happened to meet several reasonably wealthy men who were interested in becoming involved with her for more than just an evening's amusement. These men needed little convincing, as their main concern was an involvement with a woman who was pretty, and who could be socially acceptable, intelligent, witty and discreet. This was her doorway into life as a courtesan. The Duke of Rivoli became her first major benefactor around this time. However, while with him, she developed a serious gambling habit, and after bailing her out financially one too many times, the Duke
ended their affair. But she was cultivating new benefactors, including some of the richest, most powerful men in Europe.

A skilled craftsman of the time earned between two and four francs a day; she earned 5,000 a night. This relatively huge income allowed her to perform acts such as dancing nude on a carpet of orchids and then bathing before her dinner guests in a silver tub full of champagne. No one seemed bothered by her Cockney French, or her frank self interest. According to the Duke of Grammont-Caderousse, "If the Frères Provençaux served an omlette with diamonds in it, Cora would be there every night."

Her lovers included Prince Willem of Orange, son of King William III of the Netherlands; Prince Achille Murat, grandson of Joachim Murat; and the Duke of Morny, Napoleon III's half-brother. Morny, described by one historian as "a taller, handsomer edition of the Emperor", has been said to be the most intelligent and distinguished of her lovers, with an insatiable sexual appetite.

In 1886, desperately ill with intestinal cancer, she was forced to move to a first floor flat (Holden says "The various accounts of Cora spending her last days in dire poverty in one squalid room are very much exaggerated") where she died. Obituary notices appeared in the London and Paris papers and her remaining possessions were disposed of in a two-day sale in October 1886. She is buried in a grave (no 10, row 4) with no tombstone at Batignolles cemetery.


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