https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Alice_Harriet_Blosse_LynchAlice Harriet Blosse Lynch - Revision history2026-08-02T16:56:15ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Alice_Harriet_Blosse_Lynch&diff=485532&oldid=prevAllenjacksparrow at 10:40, 5 May 20262026-05-05T10:40:44Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Anglo-German aristocrat}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Alice Harriet von Kessler<br />
| birth_name = Alice Harriet Blosse Lynch<br />
| image = Kessler Alice Harriet 1868.jpg<br />
| image_size = 200px<br />
| caption = Countess von Kessler in 1868.<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1844|07|17}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Byculla]], [[Bombay]], [[British India]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1919|09|19|1844|07|17}}<br />
| death_place = [[Sainte-Honorine-la-Chardonne]], France<br />
| resting_place = [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]]<br />
| signature = <br />
| spouse = [[Adolf Wilhelm von Kessler|Count Adolf Wilhelm von Kessler]]<br />
| parents = [[Henry Blosse Lynch]]<br> Caroline Anne Taylor<br />
| children = 2 (including [[Harry von Kessler]])<br />
| education = <br />
| occupation = <br />
| relatives = [[Thomas Kerr Lynch]] (uncle)<br />
}}<br />
'''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 I]] and was rumored to have been his mistress.<br />
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== Biography ==<br />
Alice Harriet Blosse Lynch was born on 17 July 1844 in [[Byculla]].<ref name="degruyter">{{Citation |chapter=AESTHETE |date=2012-05-01 |pages=41–45 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/harvard.9780674064942.c7/html?lang=en |access-date=2024-10-20 |publisher=Harvard University Press |language=en |doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674064942.c7 |isbn=978-0-674-06494-2 |title=Solar Dance }}</ref> 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]].<ref name="androom">{{Cite web |title=Blosse-Lynch, Alice Harriet (1844-1919) |url=https://androom.home.xs4all.nl/biography/p090555.htm |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=androom.home.xs4all.nl}}</ref> She was a member of the [[Lynch-Blosse baronets|Lynch family]], a prominent landed gentry family that was part of the [[Tribes of Galway]].<ref>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.</ref><br />
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She was regarded as a great beauty and was known as an accomplished [[mezzo-soprano]] singer in society.<ref name= degruyter/><br />
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On 10 August 1867, she married the German banker [[Adolf Wilhelm von Kessler|Adolf Wilhelm Kessler]] in Paris.<ref name= androom/> She gave birth to two children, [[Harry von Kessler|Harry]] and Wilhelmina.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/der-rote-graf-a-c1e4e18e-0002-0001-0000-000043367929?context=issue|title=Der rote Graf|newspaper=Der Spiegel |date=December 19, 1961|via=www.spiegel.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Harry Graf Kessler und seine Zeit |url=https://vorwaerts.de/kultur/harry-graf-kessler-und-seine-zeit |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=Vorwärts |language=de}}</ref> German Emperor Wilhelm I was an admirer of hers.<ref name= degruyter/> She named the emperor as her daughter's godfather.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Begley |first=Louis |date=2011-12-23 |title=Harry Kessler's Fin de Siècle Diaries |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/books/review/journey-to-the-abyss-the-diaries-of-count-harry-kessler-1880-1918-book-review.html |website=The New York Times}}</ref> Rumors circulated that she was Wilhelm I's mistress.<ref name="lrb">{{Cite news |last=Steinberg |first=Jonathan |date=2013-05-23 |title=The Man Who Knew Everybody |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n10/jonathan-steinberg/the-man-who-knew-everybody |access-date=2024-10-20 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=35 |issue=10 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref> Some reports circulated that her children were actually the illegitimate children of the emperor.<ref name= lrb/><br />
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Her husband was elevated into the hereditary nobility by Wilhelm I in 1879.<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Irish Family Records|date=15 January 2008 |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry (UK) Ltd|isbn=978-0-85011-050-0|pages=741}}</ref><ref name="bio">{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Kessler, Harry Graf von (seit 1881) |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118561685.html#ndbcontent |website=Deutsche Biographie}}</ref> Her husband was elevated a second time, as a count, in 1881 by [[Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz]].<ref name= bio/><br />
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She died on 19 September 1919 and was buried in [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris.<ref name= androom/><br />
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== References ==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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{{authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blosse Lynch, Alice Harriet}}<br />
[[Category:1844 births]]<br />
[[Category:1919 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Anglo-Irish people]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Anglo-Irish people]]<br />
[[Category:British mezzo-sopranos]]<br />
[[Category:British people in British India]]<br />
[[Category:British socialites]]<br />
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]<br />
[[Category:Countesses in Germany]]<br />
[[Category:Lynch family|Alice Harriet]]<br />
[[Category:Mistresses of German royalty]]<br />
[[Category:People from Mumbai]]<br />
[[Category:Prussian nobility]]</div>Allenjacksparrow