Ever get stuck in front of the TV watching the bizarre shows labeled as history? This episode is just like that, but only for your ears. We offer nothing for your eyes.
Angie kicks things off with the Beale Papers. This story takes us on a journey through history, where we attempt to crack codes and locate a large amount of buried gold, silver, and jewels in Bedford County, Virginia. Theresa is skeptical from the start, but mostly because she doesn’t trust innkeepers entrusted with secrets.
Theresa takes things in a wildly different direction when she covers the Emancipation Duel, or that time Princess Pauline Metternich and Countess Anastasia Kielmansegg got into an argument over flower arrangements and decided the best way to settle things was with a topless sword fight. Then she delves into whether we can believe the intense press coverage of the incident.
This episode pairs well with:
The Cardiff Giant
The Craziness that is the Country of Liechtenstein
Transcript
Theresa: Hi, and welcome to the Unhinged History Podcast. The podcast, Word 2, Compulsive Nut Jobs, has been studying the stories we’re going to tell you about for the longest. We finally just got our stuff together and decided to tell each other the story and you should tune in. I’m host one, I’m Teresa, and that’s host two. I’m Angie. Hi. And yes, we are here for the stories that we’ve only recently learned. And Angie’s turn to go first?
Angie: It is, I’m sorry, I had to move my cursor on my mouse because the little hand was raising on top of your boob.
Theresa: Hey girl. That’s going to pair well with my story, but you go first.
Angie: Right. Okay. Okay. My offering for this, one of our favorite holidays to celebrate together here on the podcast is the story of unknowns and your birthday. Indeed, happiest of day to you.
Theresa: You’re not doing an April Fool’s Day story?
Angie: Oh, I’m doing an April Fool’s Day story. Okay. Okay. Okay. Geez. Now I have to start all over again. Sorry, sorry, I got excited. It’s okay, this is definitely for your birthday. I bring you a story of unknowns filled with mystery, intrigue, and every single thing about this story feels dubious, untrustworthy at best, and the sources aren’t even Reddit. I like where this is going. I knew you would.
I didn’t even know if I want to give you my sources, but I will. But first, let me say this part. Somewhere in Bedford County, Virginia, lies a treasure worth over $65 million in today’s money.
It is 2,921 pounds of gold, 5,100 pounds of silver, plus jewels. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Okay.
This story is brought to you by Bailey the History Buff, who shared this on TikTok several weeks ago, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my brain, so I knew it had to be today’s story. Okay. My sources. Decoding the past. The enigma of the bill ciphers. Discovery UK.
The quest to break America’s most mysterious code and find $60 million in buried treasure by Lucas Riley. It’s an article from April of last year. The National Security Agency has a little blurp. Straight up NSA. Straight up NSA. The Bill Treasure Story. I didn’t write down. It is billtreasurestory.com.
I forgot the dot com part. I thought this was a source. It’s not.
I’m just keeping it because it threw me for a loop like every other source that I had. Collection. The bill family paper from the Decatur House Library of Congress.
Congress. It turns out this has nothing to do with that. But I shared it just in case somebody can make the connection that I didn’t. And there is an article from the Guardian from 1999 called Treasure by Numbers, Mathematics. And when I tell you that my family has had to listen to an episode of a YouTube series called Timeline, I think it was previous to this. Maybe like a Discovery or History Channel type show.
But I can only find the series on YouTube and they have dozens of episodes and they’re all brilliant. So well done. So well put together. I watched their bill paper episode probably 20 times.
Theresa: Okay. So I’m just going to get a regurgitation of that. No.
Angie: I actually watched it so many times because like I said at the beginning, nothing made any sense to me. So I kept watching it to try to like, what’s the timeline here? How does this work? Because every source counteracts some other source. Counteracts or contradicts? Contradicts. Excuse me. Contradicts some other source. So, all right. Do you know the story of the bill papers?
Theresa: No clue. Like, no, I have. I’m completely to quote Al Pacino, Incentive Woman. I’m in the dark.
Angie: I’m in the dark. Oh, I’m so excited. Okay. So let me tell you the story of the bill papers. It’s the winter of 1820 and a mysterious stranger shows up at a inn called the Washington Hotel in Lynchburg, Virginia. This is a charismatic, well-dressed man. He goes by the name Thomas J. Beale.
And he says he’s from Virginia. At the time, he’s traveling with a couple of companions and they leave for their perspective homes after anywhere between a week and 10 days. But Beale, he stays on at the hotel for like another few months. Like, he doesn’t leave until spring when his friends come back.
Theresa: I like having that I’m going to live in a hotel money. Dude, same.
Angie: So he, he’s like I said, he stays at the hotel. He makes friends with the innkeeper. He’s very charming, very outgoing. The ladies love him. He’s just kind of the guy you want around. Kind of the, he’s portrayed as this man who just has the most interesting stories to tell and he’s gracious to everyone.
Like, he is the guy. And he stays for months. And then his friends return in the spring and they leave.
A couple of years go by and the innkeeper, a man by the name of Robert Morris, just sort of carries on his life. I’m sure every now and then this thought pops into his mind like, oh, I wonder how that Beale guy is doing. You know, he’s a decent chap. I like the stories he told, blah, blah, blah. But then in January of 1822, our man Beale shows back up and he’s tanner and quote swatheer than ever.
Theresa: I’m getting a Dorian Gray vibe from this.
Angie: That thought went through my mind at one of the times of watching this. I’m like, what the hell is swatheer? But anyway, he stays again through the winter and when he leaves in the spring, Beale entrusts Mr. Morris, the innkeeper, with this locked iron box. And Beale describes the contents as these valuable and really important papers. And Mr. Morris agrees to keep them safe until Beale returns to claim it. Because evidently, innkeepers are far more trustworthy in this time than banks. But like they, Mr. Morris was the man that Beale thought was for the job.
Okay? So I thought that was absolutely wild. Like even the documentary was like at the time nobody trusted the bank, everybody trusted the innkeeper. The innkeeper held on to all kinds of things for all kinds of people all the time back in the day.
Like that was just what they did. Okay. Now, so Mr. Morris, the innkeeper, he has this box. Shortly after Beale leaves, like a couple months, it’s May of 1822 and a letter arrives from St. Louis explaining the significance of the box. And this letter is folded up and kept carefully, like safe and included with the box.
The letter he receives goes something like this. Hey Morris, just got here after a long trip from your place. The weather’s actually decent, so no complaints. I’m going to hang around here for a week or so and then I’m off to the plains to go hunt buffalo and maybe fight some grizzlies. Could be two years, maybe more.
Who knows? Anyway, that box I left you, it’s super important. It’s got some papers in it that could make or break me and like my whole crew financially, you know what I mean? So please don’t lose it. Also, there’s going to be some letters for you in that box. They’ll explain what’s going on. But like, don’t open it for a decade.
Theresa: Yeah, I’ll just set a clock. We’ll get, we’ll, you know. Right?
Angie: Okay. After that 10 years is up, go ahead, crack it open. You can, you can call the locks and spray the locks off. It’s fine. There’s going to be some coded papers inside. They’re not going to make sense at first, but it’s cool because I left the key with someone else who’s going to mail it to you by June of 1832. And that’ll explain everything. So, if something happens to you before then, please pass everything on to someone you can trust. Hopefully it never comes to that and we’ll see you before the deadline. Take care of yourself.
Say hi to your wife, Mr. Biel. Okay. So Morris is like, oh, okay. And years passed with no word from Biel.
And like a decent amount of time. Mr. Morris assumes that Biel and his crew have been killed in these indigenous raids that are happening. Like this is the early 1800s. These guys are exploring the front here. So who knows what’s happening to them? But Morris and his comrades back in Lynchburg, they’re hearing of all these stories of like these indigenous groups coming and raiding all these white settlers. So they’re just putting two and two together and assuming that’s what happened, whether it’s what happened or not, we’ll never know. But he comes to the conclusion that probably Biel and his companions, they meet some sort of negative fate. And no one ever comes to claim Biel’s box. Now. Does the key ever come?
Theresa: Am I jumping the gun? Jumping the gun.
Angie: Remember that the box had been left in the care of Mr. Morris in the spring of 1822. According to one letter he received from Biel, he should have opened the box in 1832 if Biel and his mates hadn’t returned.
But our man Morris waits until 1845, a full 23 years. He forgot about it. He says in his later conversation about it, he says it was out of this like noble duty to not pry into other people’s business. Like it’s your story to tell him not my business. And he just kept holding out thinking that someone was going to send word and want their box back.
But after 23 years, I’m assuming he gets kind of curious. Now here’s the thing for me. Not my story to tell.
I am the queen of you can tell me a story and I will not tell another soul because it is not my story to tell. But if you leave the big iron box, I guarantee you I’m going to open it within the year.
Theresa: I’m going to wait till the dust settles as you pulled out of the driveway and then I’m getting the crowbar.
Angie: Oh, we’re going to figure this out right quick. Like that’s how I feel about it, but not Mr. Morris, 23 years. So anyway, he finally does open the box and inside he finds two personal letters addressed to him in some older seats. There are several pages that are like filled with these strings of numbers and they are completely baffling. And he finds it to be quote, totally incomprehensible to me. Which, yeah, same Mr. Morris, it’s just strings and strings of numbers that don’t make a pattern. They don’t make any sense.
To Morris, none of this makes any sense. And while the secrecy, while the waiting, is this tax evasion? Are you stepping out on your wife?
On your country? Is this treason? Because remember, it’s the early 1800s. Now by now it’s 1845. So we’re post-revolution, but you know, right?
Yeah. So he reads the letter that’s been addressed to him that’s in the box. And it goes like this. I’ve shortened it up a bit because Bill’s very wordy.
He says, hey Morris, okay, so I got a lot to drop on you, but hear me out. You were literally chosen for this because everyone agreed you’re the most trustworthy guy around. We even had someone scope you out for like three months before deciding. Low key, you’re kind of a big deal.
Remember, I stayed there for like three months. I was just determining if you were like the man for the job. So here’s the backstory. Back in 1817, me and 30 of my buddies, we had to west. Basically we’re looking to hunt buffalo, explore, you know, the whole adventure thing. But then a couple of members on my crew stumble upon this actual like gold vein out in the wilderness.
Supposedly it’s like 250 miles north of Santa’s Bay. We are talking this is a massive find. We spend the next 18 months mining it together and we split everything equally amongst the 31 of us. And eventually decide it’s too risky to keep it out there. So we transport it back to Virginia and bury it somewhere safe in Bedford County. The coded papers in that box basically just explain exactly where it’s buried, who’s in our crew, and a key to the code that is coming to you separately by June of 1832. Don’t open it early. If none of us make it back, please dig up the treasure, split it 31 ways, keep one share for yourself. You’ve earned it and distribute the rest to the people that are listed in the papers like the next of kin. Oh, okay. Because I weird about it.
Theresa: 31 random cute like I’m going to bartender and 29 beer drinkers. Here we go.
Angie: Don’t be weird about it. You got it. Take the money. You’ve earned it. You owe it. Great. Great working with you. And then he gets this last little bit that’s dated just before January 5th of 1822. Oh, hey, Morris.
Quick side. Inside the box, there is also a coded paper that’s got everybody’s names on it and the equal share of the treasure. Next to each name, you will find out where they live and what their portion is. Make sure it gets back to them.
Okay. The letter that’s supposed to arrive in June of 1832 that has the actual key to the code never shows up ever. And our guy Morris doesn’t think about it for another 13 years, right? Because it takes him 23 years to open the box. He’s not worried about this coded letter never showing up. I hate to say it, but is our man a little slow? Is our man falling down on the job? I wondered the same thing.
Theresa: Or is he just an absolute alcoholic? Like what is keeping him away from this mystery?
Angie: Now, I pondered a lot of the same things. And what’s really interesting about… Okay, first of all, the bill papers are a pamphlet. There are 23 pages on. You can still read them. I’ve read them multiple times.
Mr. Morris is described in the papers as a man of the most upstanding character. So it’s really hard for me to be like, yep, he’s an alcoholic and just forgot about it. It’s wild to me. But regardless, once Morris does open the box, he spends the next 20 years trying to solve the cipher and like fulfill his part of the bargain because he is nothing, it’s not noble, right?
He is giving Ned Stark vibes to me. It’s 1861. Morris’s wife, Sarah, dies and Morris himself doesn’t last much longer.
He dies right around 1863. But before he’s removed from the census, he doesn’t fail to pass the box and the story onto one of his trusted friends who in turn spends the next 20 years trying his hand at the cipher because remember, the key never showed up. He toils and he toils and he eventually works out cipher number two. There are three ciphers. One is called B1, one is called B2 and one is called B3. He figures out B2 using none other than the Declaration of Independence.
Theresa: Okay, this is now Nicholas Cage vibes.
Angie: This is where Nicholas, that’s where the movie comes from. And this page tells us, so B2 using the Declaration of Independence as a number to letter cross tells us what the treasure is and what is, like, what the contents were going to be of pages one and three. It says, quote, I have deposited in the county of Bedford about four miles from Buford’s in an excavation or vault six feet below the surface of the ground. The following articles, 2,921 pounds of gold, 5,100 pounds of silver also jewels obtained in St. Louis in exchange for silver to save on the transportation. The above is securely packed in iron pots with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone and the vessels rest on solid stone and are covered with others.
So basically it is a whole page of what the contents of this treasure are. Now, it’s like 1885, the new and unnamed holder of the box and the ciphers, he has to give up. He’s dedicated a ton of years to this, but it’s kind of, he actually do like real life.
I think by this point his families broke and they’re like, yo bro, you got to get like an actual job and take care of your wife and kids. Right. So he gives the story to a publisher by the name of JB Ward to release to the papers in hopes that someone will be able to figure it out. I think it is interesting to point out that at some point shortly after the pamphlet was printed, the warehouse where they were kept burnt down. But enough foreign circulation for the story to be told. So I find it interesting. Okay.
Theresa: Like this, this has the earmarks of like a tragic fake where it’s like, oh gosh, boy, we’ve lost so much original evidence. Gee golly. Shucks.
Angie: So anyway, fast forward. It’s now 1897 and a guy called Clayton Hart, he’s a clerk for the offices of the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company. And basically his job is a transcriptionist. He just transcribes documents for his employer all day.
That’s his job. I think what happens here is a little bit weird, but whatever. Basically, one afternoon he’s given a copy of the ciphers by a co-worker, a guy called Mr. Hazelwood, and he’s like, um, right, could you just, could you just cipher transcribe this out for me?
I just, I just need this. And Hart’s like, oh, this is not my normal stuff, but whatever. And he goes about transcribing it.
And then he breaks, because he thinks it’s unusual, he transcribes one for himself and brings it home. His brother and him then proceeded to spend the next 50 years trying to solve it. His brother George does the sensible thing and opts out about 1912, but doesn’t ever really seem to completely let it go, especially since his little brother Clayton is still working on it.
Anyway, back to 1897. Clayton keeps the copy. He starts kicking out trying to crack the other two ciphers because remember we’ve got cipher two.
We just don’t have one in three. And then they hear about James B. Ward, the man who published the original pamphlet. And because it, what is wild here is at some point it comes to light that it is possible the man that Morris gave everything to in the first place was Ward himself.
And he just published it as anonymous, but as himself. Okay. Right. Okay.
I’m not clear on it, on the truth of that, but that’s, that’s one of the suggestions. Now supposedly cracking number two had been done by accident and had been given up on the rest and the pamphlets were now made to the public and Clayton, because this man cannot just let something lie. He tracks down Mr. James B. Ward, who’s like old by now and chats with him and his son and they confirm the story and they say everything is real. Like everything you read in the pamphlets is true. The brothers spend years like hardcore, spare time digging, they’re trying everything. They’re testing the Constitution, Shakespeare variations of the Bible, variations of the Declaration of the Independence, numbering words, forwards and backwards, skipping words. Every combination you can imagine. They don’t pull up anything. Zips, zilch, nada. They even road trip to the area.
They confirm that the old Washington hotel and the innkeeper Morris existed between the years of 1819 and the 1822, which I too confirmed via Ancestry.com because a Robert and Sarah Morris did live in that area on the census records.
Theresa: Okay. Okay. You know what? I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten that involved in a story where I’m like, I need to get me to Ancestry.
Angie: Girl, when I tell you, Ian is so glad that I’m telling you the story right now. So around 1898, 1899 Clayton gets into hypnotism and mesmerism. I’m sure you’re familiar with both of these things.
Theresa: Yeah, we ended up covering them when I did the Fox sisters
Angie: and- I actually meant that was just to say I mentioned the Fox sisters, right? Because this is the stage of spiritualism. It’s all the rage. And he finds this young guy. He’s about 18. And apparently he’s this amazing hypnotic subject who’s like this crystal ball reading clairvoyant. And so Hart has learned the art of mesmerizing and he or he mesmerizes the young man and he orders him to go back to the night.
Before the treasure was buried and find the guys and see what they’re up to. Right? Because being mesmerized means he can go anywhere and see anything. He just needs the instructions to get there. So yeah, okay.
Theresa: Carry on.
Angie: This young man starts seeing the whole Beale story play out like a movie in front of him. Beale’s rolling up to Buford’s Tavern in 1819. He’s got these prairie schooners that covered wagons, armed guards, saddlebags full of sparkling jewels, diamonds, rubies, the whole bit. And he sees the iron pots of gold and silver. They’re sort of hidden under the hay and straw in the wagons. And in this like trance-like vision, Beale, he scouts spots.
He makes a mark on a big oak tree and then he buries the pots in this grave-sized hole that he lines with stones near Groose Creek, covers it and leaves markers. And the brothers, Clayton and George, hearing this from the young hypnotized young man are like, bet, let’s go. So they grab pick, shovels lanterns, the whole bit, and they follow him out there. Like the young man at this point, according to the documentary I watched, he’s basically like a hound dog. And he leaves them on this chase and he’s like, no, no, look right there. Look right there. They dig for like six hours.
Speaker 3: Well, they would.
Theresa: They’re going to be six hours into the ground. Digging a hole is a lot of work. Right.
Angie: And after a while, there’s this hollow sound. They hit it, right? And they’re so excited, but nothing. So they re-hypnotize the medium and he goes, oh, I’m so sorry. I took you too far. It’s just under that tree over there. But the brothers are done. They pack up, defeated, like we’re done. And George is like, I’m out. But Clayton goes back later with dynamite and blows up the tree in the area around it just to check.
Theresa: I mean, that’s actually a smart way to go about it. It’s gold. It’s not like a van go. Like explode. It’s going to wrangle.
Angie: It’s like a gold. Like, the power of gold spins just as nicely as rock. Right. But he digs up nothing. Now, they start to question if these visions that the young man was having were just picking up on Clayton’s like subconscious hopes and like dreams. And so I know, shocking. So there George gets real skeptical and he drops out about 1912.
He actually is a lawyer and like has a life and moves to DC and does his job. But they still Clayton can’t let it go. Right. When it takes him like another 20 years before they learn anything else. And basically what happens is in 1924, George, while being a lawyer and like doing his thing, he finds out that there’s this fellow called Colonel Fabian and he’s this like go to guy for code breaking. He’s got this group that works with him and they did a ton of work during World War One. So George is like, Hey Clayton, can we just mail everything to Colonel Fabian and see what he says? Like just give me the permission and go ahead.
I’ll make it happen. And Clayton’s like, Yeah, that sounds great. It’s been 20 years. We haven’t figured out anything anyway. Right. Fabian looks into it and he sends, sends word back and he’s basically like, this is a lot.
We’ll do our best to solve it. He then forwards it to a couple members of this crew, a married couple called William and Elizabeth Friedman. And they are like code breaking geniuses. When I tell you they built the toolbox for code breaking. I mean it.
Like these are the people you want on your team. They hold on to it for 14 years. In 1938, she writes the hearts of letters saying basically, Hey to break it to you, but this is a fake a fought of Froney. It’s a hoax. And this is devastating. Kate excuse me. Clayton keeps going until he dies in 1949. Of course he does.
Theresa: He can’t let it go because he’s he’s got the lost cause bias. Right. Or now cause.
Angie: Yeah, I know. I know what you mean. Yeah. Right. George for his part after Clayton dies writes everything up their whole adventure, the whole bit. All the years of effort, the bringing in the psychics. All you know, say on says the whole bit all the local gossip writes it all out. And then he’s sort of working with these lingering doubts like maybe Ward was just making it up. Who knows. But there are there are several people even today who are less than ready to give up the hunt. So there are code breakers today who are still working on it in the 60s computer experts were putting it through the top of the line like cutting edge computer programs to try to figure something out.
Nothing. There’s been tons of different searches. Most of Bedford County has been either dug up or dynamite. And the NSA has been involved. It’s been years since we’ve learned anything, but we have learned a few things. Would you care to hear them? Yeah.
No, I’m here for this. First of all, there is a man called John W. Sherman. He is an editor and in 1885 he buys the newspaper, the Lynchburg, Virginia, and then promptly notes that it’s out of money.
Secondly, Sherman is a sale. Yeah. Right.
Okay. Sherman is well known for his dime novel adventures. Like the writings of them, right? And thirdly, there are 84 ads specifically put out for the bill pamphlets that are run. And they only run in the Lynchburg, Virginia. You know, the newspaper that he bought, the paper that was totally out of money. It was the only newspaper that ran advertisements for the bill pamphlets. And then the plot thickens further because of course we now all think that he’s the original creator of the papers and this fantastic story of adventure and intrigue, but we can’t find his name on the pamphlet anywhere.
Well, that’s because of course, since he’s the editor and a very well known man in the time, he can’t possibly be the person to publish the papers himself. That won’t work. He’s not going to sell anything, right? It’s not going to be a mystery.
It’s not going to be intrigue. So James B. Ward, the original publisher, does his cousin a solid and publishes it under his name instead. And I’m like, damn it. Dang. So this all seems to solve it, right? It’s a hoax. That’s it. It’s got to be.
But is it? I did a little digging, as I mentioned, and there was a Robert and Sarah Morris alive and well in Buford back in the 1820s. Unfortunately, the Virginia Census in 1820 does not list jobs. I was very upset to find that out.
Theresa: Thomas Beale. But that’s like the thing. You put the occupation.
Angie: You didn’t in the 1820s. I don’t think it started until much, much later, like maybe another 50 years. Thomas Beale, he’s a bit of a mystery. I did a quick Ancestor.com search on him, and there are lots of Thomas Beale’s and Thomas J. Beale’s in and around the area all over the U.S. at this time. Unfortunately, we really know nothing else about him, aside from the facts given to us in the bill papers in the pamphlet. We know he’s affluent. We know he’s charismatic. We know he’s educated.
But wait, there’s more. In the 1980s, a journal services, a travel journal. And it tells the story of a party very similar to the traveling party Beale describes in his letters. And I need you to know, I started this fully believing the bill papers were real. Of course you did. And the amount, like, I wanted it to be real so bad. I wouldn’t say I believed it. I wanted it to be real so bad. The amount of questions I Googled and asked AI is a third. I came after, like, yeah.
Theresa: I want you to know that today I was telling Mike about when I told you about the time traveler from Kiev and how the whole story reeked of what this can’t be real.
Angie: I will make it real in my mind.
Theresa: You were angry at me for weeks. Weeks, girl, I’m still mad.
Angie: I want this, I want this whimsy to be real. However, I have no clear reason to believe it’s real. And until somebody can confirm to me, like, the Thomas Beale that they wrote about was real, it cannot possibly be. But also, I’m not going to say I’m not. The best part about all of this is the pamphlets didn’t sell. So they didn’t really make money off of them.
Theresa: It was a failed marketing ploy.
Angie: Well, that’ll happen, I think, when the building that they’re stored in burns down. Yeah, I mean, I could see that. Right? I mean, it would be cool. I think it would be cool for it to be real just for the sake of it being real. But to be honest, like, I would be livid if I was the next of kin that was set to receive this treasure and my guy, Robert Morris, didn’t open the box for 23 years. I have a feeling you probably didn’t know. I’m assuming they didn’t know. But also, and to me, the biggest kicker that this has to be a hoax is that you are telling me 31 men went off on an adventure and 31 men kept it a secret.
Theresa: Yeah, that’s that’s the big thing right there.
Angie: I’m that was my first like this can’t be. I know men can be true. Yeah, so there’s the deal papers.
Theresa: All right. Well, I’m going to shift wildly both in time and place for my story.
Angie: I’m so excited. Happy, happy April Fools and happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you.
Theresa: I my sources for this. So Alessandro, first off, I received this and almost told you this story previously. And a while, a while back, Alessandro, great listener, friend of the pod.
He sent me an article about this and I was like, yeah, I know, I know. But I covered it. But today I’m going to tell you more of the topless sword fight.
Angie: Is this the one they’re women? Yeah, they’re women. Yeah, let’s go. OK, so the history. That’s all the information I have. Yeah, so the history blog.com.
Theresa: They have a article, Princess versus Countess, the topless duel over flowers. Racing, Nelly, Bligh dot com has topless dual spawned unreliable news.
Angie: Unreliable news like every single one of my sources today.
Theresa: I tried to find podcasts about either one of these women couldn’t. Only one of them has a Wikipedia page. OK, OK. So Journey with Me August 18. Wait, are you about to say Reddit was your source? Negative. Although in looking, there were Reddit links. I didn’t click them.
Angie: This is the one day a year you could have gotten away with it.
Theresa: I didn’t, though. I was a J store and I was just like this woman and they were just like, please. So. OK. So August 1892, there’s a duel that reportedly took place in Liechtenstein. Stop. Just wait.
The adversaries are going to take the field armed with rapiers and they are seeking satisfaction and blood over what it could be described as an unpardonable outrage, a dispute over a flower arrangement.
Angie: First of all, Liechtenstein doesn’t get involved in duals. Liechtenstein makes friends on the way home from four.
Theresa: But I will explain later on why Liechtenstein is in the story as prevalent as it is. And it’s basically it’ll make sense. And you’ll be like, OK, this, you know what, this checks this.
Speaker 3: That’s so excited. I’m so sorry. I have.
Theresa: And if you’re wondering, it’s because Angie covered the mythological place that is Liechtenstein in episode 17. And that is titled next week in therapy. I put it in my notes because I knew as a reaction I was going to get from her.
Angie: Now, we love Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein, if you’re listening, we’re big fans of your work.
Theresa: Completely, completely. Now, we know that it was over a flower arrangement, but what the precise nature of this disagreement, that’s been lost to time. What we do know is Princess Pauline Metruinic, the granddaughter of the Napoleonic era Austrian statesman, Prince Clemens or Clemens von. Nope. Statement. So the Austrian statement, Prince Clemens, Wenzel, von Metruinic and Countess Anastasia Clemenseg. She is the wife of Statthalter of Lower Austria. They held conflicting visions over how flowers should be arranged at the Viennese International Exhibition of Music and Theatre in 1892.
Angie: I need you to know that I am visualizing the Dowager Countess and her best friend from Downton Abbey. Maggie Smith and that other sweet, wonderful woman. I can’t place her name right now.
Theresa: Yeah, I hear you. I’m not going to disabuse you of that, but the ages are wrong and we’ll get into that later. And I’m sure they are, but that’s just what I’m seeing. I spent time hunting down the age of the Countess because this I was like, OK, so, but yes, both of these women are fixtures of high society in both Paris and Vienna in the late 19th century. Each volunteered for numerous charitable organizations and were active supporters of the arts. OK, OK, so they are the who’s who.
OK, now. The event that they’re doing is in German, but I am going to say it is the Viennese International Exhibition of Music and Theatre because can I just tell you that the word for theater is like 27 letters long? And there’s 14 K’s. No case. Oh, OK. But it ends in lung. Hate that.
OK, so I just because Mike got to watch me really try to say this word out loud and he’s like, no, and he looked at me like, yeah, I’m just not a good look for you, babe. No, no. But anyhow, the exhibition of music and theater. This is an artistic event. This is the event in Vienna. OK, we don’t have a lot that we remember about it, but it’s influenced what at the time was enormous. And this helped shaped our modern perception of musical culture.
Angie: OK, so this is on a thing. This is is the event.
Theresa: This is the event. OK, now it was inspired by these wildly popular world fairs that were going on. Oh, right. OK, that makes sense. Yep. And it was launched by the great exhibition of works and industry of all nations at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851.
Hold on. The Viennese Theatre. In London.
No, it was launched by. London’s Crystal Palace. OK, so inspired by the wildly popular trend for world fairs. Oh, OK, so the world fair trend launched by the great exhibition of works and industry of all nations at London’s Crystal Palace.
Angie: OK, I’m sorry. I thought all of a sudden we’re changing locations. No, no, I got it.
Theresa: Yeah, I appreciate that. There’s a lot happening in the story. I didn’t care too much about the specific details, so I didn’t make it easy for me. Now, the Viennese or the Viennese, the Viennese exhibition. The story just changed dramatically.
Now, the Viennese exhibition showcased the finest Europe. Or I am. I’m going to cut all of that out. The Viennese exposition showcased the finest music Europe’s most musical city could offer. OK, OK, so this is music and theater, and they are going to just nail both. Now, it represented the first large scale effort to market and monetize music. OK, so I like this. This was the only World’s Fair devoted exclusively to those two arts. Good for them.
Angie: The rest of the world needs to catch up.
Theresa: Now, it also played a incredible role in popularizing the concept of classical music, and they defined it as European music from the mid 16th century all the way through the end of the 19th. When the exposition or exhibition, I don’t know if there’s a difference between those two words, but the exhibition opened on May 7th, 1892.
The idea was new. And by the time that it closed on October 9th, the notion had taken hold and established Vienna’s image as the capital of European music. OK, so it’s cemented Vienna’s role in what we know classical.
Angie: Yeah, OK, I was going to say this is like fan of the opera cementing Broadway as the pinnacle of gay guys. Yep.
Theresa: So as this is happening, Princess Pauline and Countess Clealman’s Egg both held important volunteer positions at the exhibition. The princess served as the honorary president while the countess presided over the ladies committee. OK, do I understand the differentiation of roles here? No, I’m sitting here pondering.
Angie: How they feel like they’re the same role.
Theresa: I don’t disagree and I couldn’t get a clear understanding and I tried. Gotcha. So what we do know is Princess Pauline proposed expanding the event beyond music to theater and making it international in scope rather than limiting it to what she felt was a modest exhibition devoted to the Austrian musical history. OK, now because of her efforts here, operas such as I’m going to butcher this. Rogarro, Leon Calville, Calv… Leon, Cavalos, Paglici and Pietro, Magcani’s Calvaria, Rustica, were staged to great acclaim during the exhibition. They weren’t they weren’t performed together at a double bill.
The famous Cavs Pagg pairing debuted the following year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I’m sure you were deeply curious. Thank you.
You’re welcome. But Princess Pauline also founded the flower parade along the main street of Vienna’s Prater as a tradition that she began in 1866. And that continues all the way through today. One newspaper described her before the duel as having, quote, inherited a courage with borders on the insanity from her father, Count Sandoor, who was famous for his hair-brained extravagances.
I like him. So, yeah, if she inherited that from Papa, this story is going to be bananas. Now, that reputation might help explain why, whether the Countess said about the exhibition flower arrangements so deeply offended the princess that she’s willing to take this matter to the point of bloodshed.
I love this. Now, at this time, Princess Pauline is 56 years old. Of course she is, which is older than I would think. And she is such an influential Austrian figure that she reportedly enjoyed greater social standing than Empress Elizabeth. Okay. And it’s here that she challenged Countess Anastasia to a duel. The Countess is 32. Question. Answer.
Angie: Has dueling been outlawed in Vienna?
Theresa: Next line. Because dueling is illegal in Austria. Thank you. You’re welcome. The women and their seconds, Princess… Oh my God, they had seconds. They had seconds. Princess… Okay. …Svorsenberg and Countess Kinsi, or Kinskai, traveled to Vides, the capital of Liechtenstein, where the matter could be settled. Because it’s legal there. It’s the New Jersey of Hamilton.
Angie: Died. Girls, we’re going on a day trip. Yeah, it’s going to be a little duel, and then we’ll get some brunch.
Theresa: Persiding over the encounter is Baroness Lupenska, a Polish noble woman and summons from Warsaw. Now, unusual for women in the era, she’s a trained medical doctor and practiced according to the Listerian antiseptic principles.
Angie: I need an entire episode on her.
Theresa: I kind of feel the same. Because her presence is considered essential in the case of rapier wounds that would need treatment. Hold on.
Angie: I… Sorry, I need you to say her name again.
Theresa: Baroness Lupenska. All right.
Angie: All right, we may move on now. I’m going to be stuck on this for the rest of her forever. Oh my God, I found it.
Theresa: Anyhow, allow me to carry on. Sorry, go on. The Baroness had seen firsthand how easily infection could follow even superficial cuts when clothing fibers were driven into the wounds. So to reduce the risk, she ordered the male servants to turn away and instructed the duelist to strip to the waist.
Angie: Okay, so the Baroness is like your grace, your highness tops off. Yep. Okay. I love this. Yep.
Theresa: The duel is not intended to the death. The goal it never is first blood. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Speaker 3: That’s no work in the eyes of ours, but.
Theresa: You got to make a girl see her own blood. Yeah.
Angie: So I would be insufferable. Just need everyone to know.
Theresa: I’m surprised you didn’t think I would be.
Angie: Oh no, you would be too. It’d be delightful.
Theresa: You can suffer both. Yes. So the princess and the countess, both topless, they take up the rapiers and engaged. After several exchanges, one woman suffered a small cut to the nose, the other to the arm. Now, reports differ on who received which wound. Either way, first blood had been drawn by the princess, who has declared the victor and the fighting ceased. Baroness Lupinska dressed the wounds and the second encouraged the women to embrace and kiss.
Angie: Of course. We’re friends now.
Theresa: Kiss and makeup. And so they do. And this would bring to an end what is known as the topless flower arrangement duel at 1892. Now, what you’re going to say?
Angie: This is the part where you’re telling me it didn’t actually happen, huh?
Theresa: The story caused quite a sensation. Newspapers dubbed the encounter the emancipated duel. And I don’t know why.
Angie: Yeah, that does feel like the wrong word to put there.
Theresa: Yeah. And scenes of topless women’s sword fighting became popular in stage productions, early films, and even risque postcards. Shocking. So the topless duel between the Austrian socialites caused an entire summer sensation and this reading across the continents in 1892. Now, the alleged quarrel had supposedly begun from the flower arrangement disagreement. And the noble women who were real and as real as the exhibition in the flowers, but all evidence beyond that scarce. So they’re saying it didn’t happen. And I can’t even say Pixar didn’t happen because of the postcards. We have pics. That crap. We have pics. I mean, they were drawn, but they are there now.
Angie: Well, I mean, they didn’t have camp. Well, actually. Anyway. Carry on. We’ve had we have photography.
Theresa: God, no, whether the duel occurred or not, that’s uncertain. What we do know is that it sparked this huge wave of newspaper coverage and imagery. And they would they would circulate that entire summer. Now, the doolus. Princess Pauline Metronich and Count Sanastasia Clemens egg. They are both very real people.
Okay. The princess is born February 25th, 1836. And she’s the granddaughter of the of Prince Clemens von Clemens, Winsol, von Metronich. And at 20, she would go on to marry her brother’s half brother, Gross, Prince Richard von Metronich. I have additional questions. Yeah. Family trees, halfsburg, jaws, wreaths.
Angie: That part makes sense. But how do you get your brother’s half brother? Your mother’s half brother. Oh, I thought you said she married her brother’s half brother. And I’m like, wouldn’t they also be her half brother then?
Theresa: Or full? No, but her mother’s half brother. So. Okay. Yeah. So almost uncle or almost full uncle. And he, the almost full uncle is the Austrian ambassador at the court of Napoleon the third.
Angie: You know, I’m going to be honest. I never thought I would hear Napoleon and Liechtenstein in the same story, but I’m not surprised now that you said it.
Theresa: Now, since she’s the wife of a diplomat, Pauline became known for her charm and her elegance as she moved through the elite social circles across Europe. Of course she does. Now we know and we’ve confirmed that she is a major promoter of classical music, particularly Wagner. And the fashion icon, she was a fashion icon and taste maker and she champion hot couture and the designs of Charles, Charles, Fred, Charles Frederick. Worth.
Angie: I’m so sorry, but watching, watching your face as you try to say every one of these words is.
Theresa: You’re welcome. It’s the gift I give to you on the day of my birth. Now, the Metropolitan Museum of Art would describe Pauline as quote, a famously, a famously, homely, yet chic style icon known for her sense of wit. She was said to have referred to herself as quote, a fashion monkey. Love her. Okay. So self-aware, even though she is a style icon, so she was mixing patterns is what I’m hearing.
Angie: She is wearing the plaid with flowers on top.
Theresa: Yep. Now, uh, Count Sanastasia, she’s born 1860 and she would come from a wealthy Russian family in what is now Moldova. I know. Her husband is German and he is count Eric von Klumensig and he is the governor of Lower Austria, giving her on thread to Vietnamese high society. Now, regarding the rivalry, the British magazine, the ladies realm published upper class and aspiring middle class women and they profiled both of these women in 1898 and covered them from May through October. The editors included brief biographies of the women of prominent societies, but they don’t make any mention of a topless dual.
Shame. But they may not considering their audience, right? Oh, okay. So just because they don’t say anything doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It just means we don’t talk about that with polite society.
Angie: Yeah, that’s a very British thing to do. Yeah, it’s not Lady Whistledown. Damn it.
Theresa: Now, the exhibition, we know that this existed. It was a grand undertaking and it was inspired by the great exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851 and that the World’s Fair followed after. Now, it did seek to promote the major composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn.
Angie: I totally thought you were going to say mezos and I’m like, what? Yeah.
Theresa: I try to combine all the words at once. It helps me get through things so much faster. Honestly, it really does. Now, the dual that we do not know if it happened or not. While we don’t know where, you know, what happened, we can see when you look at the reports and you study the newspaper articles in succession and you see like the time stamps and just kind of watch this build, the Paul Maul Gazette, which I’m excited that that’s anything more than a cigarette. Honestly, yeah. It’s founded in 1865 and it’s known for contributions from writers like George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, so notable.
Yeah. They report on August 23 of 1892, quote, no small sensation has been made by the report of a dual between two ladies of high Austrian nobility. The princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Clemenseg had a fearful dual over some arrangements at the exhibition. The affair was regarded as so serious it could only be settled by blood.
Angie: So are we are we suggesting that they didn’t dual because they do a lady according to the Paul Maul Gazette? That’s what I’m saying. Like if you have the local papers that are saying it, who’s saying they didn’t?
Theresa: Well, let’s hold that thought. Let’s put a pin in that. Okay. We’ll circle back. Yeah. The paper describes the journey to Vitesse, the rapier dual, the injury sustained by each woman before their seconds persuaded them to embrace and reconcile. Okay. And by the time, I love this next line, the story reached the Missoulean newspaper in Missoula, Montana. On October 5, 1892, the tale had grown even more colorful.
Angie: So you’re going to tell me we’re going to talk about Missoula and Liechtenstein and the story.
Theresa: Save story. I love it. Okay. The paper described Europe’s aristocracy. Go ahead. Europe’s aristocracy. Crassie? Crazy. Crazy. Aristocracy. Aristocracy. Goodness, how did I know?
Angie: Ha ha. Do you know the amount of times I have jacked that word up in front of you and been like, and
Theresa: I’m just like doing needlework going aristocracy? Yeah. But the second, you know, I try to read it out loud. Nope.
Angie: I just hope that you now have that in your mind and have to think it through every time, because when I read it now, I’m like, okay.
Theresa: The time I have said posthumously on TikTok, but I said as it is written, posthumously. Posthumously. Yes. And I have gotten roasted in the comments, like loved everything about this, but posthumously. Or, ooh, I can tell we have a reader on our hands, folks.
Angie: Okay. That’s, to be honest, I could tell we have a reader on our hands. This is the best compliment you can give me, bro, just because you can’t say the word out loud doesn’t mean it’s not there. Truth.
Theresa: Oh, either way, back to Missoula.
Angie: That’s right. We’re in Montana now.
Theresa: The paper described Europe aristocracy reacting with horror while ordinary readers responded with amusement, recounting the dual in dramatic terms. God, I love this. Now, other accounts will add further embellishments, including claims that Baroness Lubanetska, who reportedly had battlefield experience, insisted the women fight topless to prevent the clothing fibers from contaminating the wounds. We did kind of hear in the original account. May or may not be true. It could be that she’s just like noble boobies.
Angie: You know what? The bingo-bingoes need to be out.
Theresa: You know what? Yeah, you’re going to do this. Let’s go, girls.
Angie: Make it a show. I did not come all the way here from whence you called me. Yeah.
Theresa: Warsaw is quite a ways in a carriage, so break them out.
Speaker 3: I will be entertained. Yeah.
Angie: My husband and I have a little bet, so I’m just wondering, could you take the tops off? Thank you so much.
Theresa: Stories of this topless dual between the noble women spread across the continents, and episodes in books about the dueling continue to circulate online today. Now, it is possible that Princess Pauline Matronich publicly denied the dual ever took place, although no definitive sources can confirm that she acknowledged or addressed the story. But I’m sure she knew about it, because this was Fred’s far and right. Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, that was me. Austrian newspapers at the time reportedly dismissed the tale as a fabrication originating in Italian publications before it spread across Europe.
Angie: What is the hope? Are you going to discredit these ladies for having the humble bombos?
Theresa: And I mean, they’re not of marrying age, right? 56 and 32 both married. You’re not ruining their prospects.
Angie: You’re not ruining their day at all, if I’m being honest. So what’s the point?
Theresa: But I have pictures. Of course you do.
Angie: Why did I think they were going to be in somebody’s living room?
Theresa: I do not understand why they would be. Our girls are out in the fields of Lichtenstein. Rapiers in hand. Okay, so it is an impressionist painting.
Angie: It’s actually gorgeous. Do we know who the artist for this is? No, I do not. Okay, anyway, you’ve got a handful of ladies to the top left that are in their full afternoon lady outfits. One is clearly tops down. She’s got her gloved hand on though, because we have to have a glove when we’re going to hold the rapier. And then you’ve got the other in the bottom right corner and she’s tits up and gloved, rapiered hand with her, her second and her side. And then you have the bareness on the, like she’s kneeling. She still has, you guys, she still has her afternoon hat on. Like, yeah. It’s got the big ass feathers. It’s got the whole thing. She’s got a muffled, like ruffled fur collar on and she is leaning down into what I can only assume is her medical kit. Yeah. This is glorious. I want this painting in my living room now.
Theresa: I want that one in my living room.
Angie: Yeah, I’m going to need that in my dressing room when I become a millionaire. Describe to the listeners. Okay. So this is a much more, the ambiance is different in this one. It is also in a field. The, it’s a darker painting.
Theresa: The ladies that are like an actual painting as opposed to the drawing. Drawing.
Angie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The ladies that are spectating are off to the left and in the center and far right. You have the hits out princess and countess and they are going at it with forward and hand. And you guys, when I say this, their dresses are gorgeous, but their blouses are folded and stupid.
Theresa: I think that’s a hat that has been knocked off.
Angie: I, yeah, it looks like one. So I wonder if Rapier A knocked off Rapier B’s hat because it appears to be in, it’s floating. Yeah.
Theresa: And then, oh my God, that’s glorious. There’s this one here. So we have another side by side of the original drawing that I showed you and then a recreation of the situation.
Angie: Okay, I swear to you. It’s a photograph and I’m not kidding when I tell you one of these women looks like Montahari. Yeah. That is hilarious.
Theresa: And then one final one. She’s got pasties on her. I think, I think that is an attempt to censor it with at signs.
Angie: Oh, you know what? You might be right, but I’m going to taste these as best. Again, proper afternoon ladies. This one looks like they’re in the garden. Yeah. They have fully removed their blouses, though. They’re not just folded down and tucked into their skirts, but they still have their hats on, you guys, because we are proper ladies after all. And the one at the back is covering her eyes. I assume she’s laughing so hard she’s crying, so she’s batting the tears away.
Theresa: But that is the story at the top with sword fight.
Angie: I know I say this a lot, but this might actually be my favorite of your stories. This is going up there with the Kimchaka. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Only it’s giving way better energy than the Kimchaka. They were just chaotic. These girls are settling problems the old fashioned way.
Theresa: Yeah, like men.
Angie: Great way to celebrate women’s history. Well, that was March. This is April. That’s true. That’s true. Okay, you’re right. We’re going to solve problems. We’re going to solve our womanly problems the old fashioned way, like men.
Theresa: And if you want to solve your problems with rapiers, topless in the garden, then rate, review, subscribe, because I don’t know if you know this, but we are an independent podcast. We’re not a part of a great podcasting network. We do this all in our lonesome so lowly.
Angie: And also, if you are going to start a duel in your garden topless, will you call us?
Theresa: Yeah, honestly. We’ll be there. We’ll show up with the popcorn. We’ll be your seconds. We will have, I’ll make kettle, I’ll figure out how to make kettle corn for this. I’ll bring beverages. And send this to somebody who would be most likely to get in an argument about flowers so that you can have this topless sword fight. Send this to your closest friends. And enemies. And on that note, your friendemies. Goodbye.
Speaker 3: Bye.
Unhinged History 
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