1. Eliza Alice Lynch was the Irish mistress-wife of Francisco Solano Lopez, president of Paraguay.
21 Facts About Eliza Lynch
1. 2.
Eliza Lynch was born Eliza Alicia Lynch in Charleville, County Cork, Ireland, at the time located within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
3.
Eliza Lynch was the daughter of John Lynch, MD and Jane Clarke Lloyd, who was from a family of officers of the Royal Navy.
4.
Eliza Lynch emigrated at the age of ten with her family to Paris to escape the Great Irish Famine.
5.
Eliza Lynch 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.
6.
Eliza Lynch was described as possessing a Junoesque figure, golden blonde hair and a provocative smile.
7.
In 1854, Eliza met General Francisco Solano Lopez, son of Carlos Antonio Lopez, the president of Paraguay.
8.
Once in Paraguay, Eliza Lynch became Lopez's partner, bearing him six children in total.
9.
Eliza Lynch then became the de facto first lady, as she and Lopez never actually married.
10.
Eliza Lynch would spend the next fifteen years as the most powerful woman in the country.
11.
Eliza Lynch arguably is considered to be the reason Lopez was so ambitious.
12.
Eliza Lynch followed Lopez during the entire war and led a group of women called "Las Residentas", composed of the soldiers' wives, daughters, and others, who supported the soldiers.
13.
Eliza Lynch then buried both Lopez and her son with her bare hands before being taken as prisoner.
14.
Eliza Lynch returned to Europe with her remaining children; and after five years, and under promises of the then-elected Paraguayan president Juan Bautista Gill that she would be respected, she decided to return to Paraguay to settle there and try to claim her former property.
15.
Eliza Lynch died in obscurity in Paris on 25 July 1886.
16.
Eliza Lynch's remains are now located in the national cemetery "Cementerio de la Recoleta".
17.
Some historians believe that Eliza Lynch was responsible for inducing Francisco Solano Lopez to start the Paraguayan War.
18.
Eliza Lynch is considered a prominent figure of the war for her support of the troops and her willingness to remain with Lopez until the bitter end.
19.
Eliza Lynch transformed the Paraguayan woman into her way of dressing and thinking.
20.
Eliza Lynch is known as Madam or Madama Eliza Lynch in Paraguay due to her European origins, the fact that she never married Lopez, and the implications of her past as a courtesan.
21.
Eliza Lynch is often noted as the Paraguayan predecessor to the Argentine Evita.