Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, Duchess of Arcachon-Qwghlm (born circa 1665) is one of the main characters in The Baroque Cycle. Her financial and political machinations, as well as her lifelong romance with Jack Shaftoe are important themes of the Cycle.
Physical appearance[]
Eliza was frequently noted for her exceptional beauty and bodily attributes, possessing keen blue eyes, a smooth symmetry to her visage, and a fine set of teeth. Her hair was described as yellow or light blonde, and she was small-waisted and bony, built upon an "excellent frame". In her early adventures, she proved adept at disguise, adopting a Christian man's clothes or an officer's bloody coat.
Her appearance underwent a dramatic change following a severe bout with smallpox. The illness left her gaunt and with a wasted frame, though Gottfried Leibniz noted she emerged with only light disfigurement and intact wits. To conceal the resulting three dozen pocks on her face, she sometimes wore small patches of black felt glued to her face. By her mid-forties, her light blonde hair was noted to be going a bit silvery. Even after these transformations, observers continued to remark upon her beauty and her commanding presence.
Personality[]
Eliza possessed a personality characterized by sharp intelligence, resourcefulness, and formidable ambition, driven in part by a desire for security and vengeance. As a former harem slave, she developed a shrewd mind that excelled in fields such as mathematics, cryptology, and complex financial machinations. She was consistently perceptive, capable of reading situations quickly, whether determining a man's intentions or analyzing market trends. Her quick wit and ability to articulate herself were notable, sometimes using language so cryptic or calculated that it confounded those around her. Eliza used her considerable intellect to navigate and manipulate the inner workings of European politics and high society, becoming an investor, a spy for William of Orange, and eventually a French countess and duchess in the court of Louis XIV.
Her ambition was often intertwined with a deep desire for independence and a secure foundation, which she openly stated she believed could be found in money, rather than ephemeral social status. Eliza demonstrated extreme resilience, surviving slavery, smallpox, and constant intrigue. She was defiant and ruthless when necessary, notably plotting to kill the man who had enslaved her and her mother (the duc d'Arcachon) and successfully orchestrating complex financial maneuvers to enrich herself and ruin her enemies, such as Lothar von Hacklheber.
Although capable of deep affection and loyalty—particularly evident in her relationship with Jack Shaftoe, which led him to perform acts of "phantastickal gallantry", and her concern for her children—she also exhibited a cold, calculating pragmatism. She could adopt a "placid cruelty" when dealing with others, viewed transactions with a detached financial mindset, and intentionally infected an abusive husband with smallpox, leading to his death.
Eliza's complexity allowed her to play roles ranging from a governess to a social broker and a key political figure, capable of influencing the minds and actions of merchants and monarchs alike.
Biography[]
Eliza's life spanned a journey from enslavement to becoming a renowned European duchess, investor, and spy. She was originally from Qwghlm, where she and her mother were kidnapped from the beach by a European pirate and taken into slavery in Barbary. The pirate's ship operated in concert with a Christian vessel, and an uncircumcised white man molested them in a dark cabin. Her mother was sold into the harem of an Ottoman military official in Algiers, where she founded the Society of Britannic Abductees. When Eliza reached adulthood, she was traded (or "liquidated") to Constantinople as part of a trade, receiving the same treatment as a commodity. This transaction involved the acquisition of an albino Arabian stallion named Pasha (horse). She later discovered that the man responsible for her enslavement was the Duc d'Arcachon, and she vowed to kill him.
Travels and entry into European finance[]
Eliza was rescued by Jack Shaftoe, known as "The King of the Vagabonds", during the Battle of Vienna. The pair traveled across Europe, initially disguised as a wounded officer and his companion. Along the way they developed a romantic involvement. Eliza and Jack moved from Vienna towards Linz, where she attempted to practice commerce, though unsuccessfully. They moved on to the Leipzig Fair, where Eliza decided they should invest in Kuxen (shares) of a silver mine. At Leipzig, she met Gottfried Leibniz ("the Doctor"), who invited them to inspect the mines of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Harz Mountains. After reaching the mine, Jack wandered off, but Eliza remained and struck up a relationship with Herr Geidel, recognizing him as a potential business partner.
Eliza met Bob Shaftoe when he knocked her off her horse in the forests surrounding The Hague. Bob asked Eliza for her help with freeing Abigail Frome from slavery, and the two began a sexual relationship. The relationship lasted until 1692, when Eliza urged Bob to stop thinking of her as the "other woman in the life of Bob Shaftoe and Abigail Frome" and to focus instead on his own projects.
Eliza and Jack proceeded to Amsterdam, where she quickly became embroiled in the trade of commodities. She settled in lodgings near the Damplatz and frequented the coffee-house called The Maiden. She began corresponding with Leibniz, concealing sophisticated enciphered messages within voluminous chatter about fashion and court life. She recognized that the financial market operated largely on Windhandel (the wind business), driven by a trickle of paper and information. Jack meanwhile departed for Paris to sell their remaining goods, leaving Eliza in the Dutch Republic.
Political maneuvers and court life[]
In Amsterdam, Eliza became deeply involved in politics. She collaborated with Knott Bolstrood and the Duke of Monmouth to manipulate VOC stock trade, using fictitious ducat shares. She orchestrated a panic by signaling (at the opera) that Monmouth was renouncing his claim to the throne and heading East, causing speculators to sell short, allowing Eliza and her collaborators to profit. She identified the Dutch traitor Mr. Sluys as a potential resource due to his connections with French investors.
The French Ambassador, the Comte d'Avaux, persuaded Eliza to go to Versailles to act as a spy, supplying him with information about the French court. While traveling, William of Orange intercepted her, seizing enciphered messages carried in her baggage. William forced her to become a double agent for him, demanding she return to Versailles. During her period in the Netherlands, Daniel Waterhouse later met her during a visit. Eliza employed her charm and intelligence to gain influence with Daniel, enabling her later access to the English court and the Royal Society. She and Nicolas Fatio de Duillier successfully prevented an attempted kidnapping of William of Orange by French agents on the beach near Scheveningen. William subsequently instructed her to go to Versailles and focus on gathering intelligence from Liselotte von der Pfalz regarding the French preparations to invade the Palatinate.
In Versailles, Eliza became the governess to a widower's two children and, subsequently, caught the eye of King Louis XIV. She established herself as a broker for the French nobility, helping the court profit extensively from market trends. Louis XIV granted her the title of Comtesse de la Zeur. She also began a romantic entanglement with Bonaventure Rossignol, leading to the birth of her first son Jean-Jacques, who was later kidnapped by business rival Lothar von Hacklheber and renamed Johann von Hacklheber.
Eliza returned to London in 1688 and secured entrance to Whitehall Palace during Queen Mary of Modena's labor, allowing her to gauge the political situation regarding the birth of James II's son and place advantageous bets in Amsterdam.
The Glorious Revolution and the Duc d'Arcachon[]
In August 1688, after a brief return to Versailles, she joined Liselotte at her estate at St. Cloud. She left secretly, traveling up the Marne, overland across the Argonne Forest, and down the Meuse to Nijmegen, gathering intelligence on French military movements. During this intense period, she became pregnant by Rossignol. She traveled to The Hague, informing William of Orange of the French troop movements, which allowed him to withdraw his forces from the Spanish Netherlands border and launch the invasion that led to the Glorious Revolution.
After giving birth in The Hague, Eliza's plan was to pose as a grieving widow and pass the baby off as an orphaned niece, the sole survivor of a massacre in the Palatinate. After recovering, she attempted to sail to England, liquidating her Amsterdam assets. However, her ship was captured off Dunkerque by Jean Bart, a French privateer, and she lost her entire fortune. D'Avaux subsequently blackmailed her into loaning her diminished fortune to the French crown to fund the war.
Through a reunion with the albino horse Pasha, Eliza realized that the man who had originally enslaved her and her mother from Qwghlm was the elder Duc d'Arcachon, and she began plotting his assassination. However, Jack Shaftoe preempted her, killing the Duc d'Arcachon in Cairo. Jack sent the Duc's severed head in a box which was dramatically unveiled during an event at the Hôtel Arcachon, with Jack sending along the message that the deed was done "for the love of a woman". To protect her and Jack's complicity in this deed, Eliza immediately accepted Étienne de Lavardac's marriage proposal, thus becoming the Duchess d'Arcachon.
Eliza used her position to manipulate French government financial affairs, assisting Pontchartrain in devising a scheme to finance the 1692 invasion of England by utilizing Bills of Exchange and the English Tory-controlled Mint to obtain English coin for the French troops. She sailed to London, carrying out a complex short squeeze on the House of Hacklheber banking establishment, forcing them to accept timber contracts in lieu of silver repayment, ruining their reputation and securing vast wealth for herself. While in London, she suffered a miscarriage.
Later intrigues[]
In 1694, Eliza traveled to the Electorate of Saxony to visit Eleanor and Princess Caroline. She contracted smallpox and, during her illness, intentionally exposed the lecherous Elector Johann Georg IV (who desired Caroline), to the disease, leading to his subsequent death. This action secured Eleanor's position as Electress-Dowager and protected Caroline.
After recovering, she traveled to Leipzig and discovered her kidnapped son, Johann, being raised by Lothar von Hacklheber. She confronted Lothar, eventually leveraging an accidental encounter with Jack Shaftoe's pirate friend Yevgeny the Raskolnik, to intimidate von Hacklheber into relinquishing the boy.
In the following years, her title as Duchess of Qwghlm was recognized by the peace treaty. She established a presence in London, dedicated to abolitionist work, including securing freedom for white slaves like the Taunton schoolgirls. She also supported a charity for Vagabond-soldiers. She and her family maintained residences across Europe.
Around 1713, Eliza worked incognito in Hanover to aid Princess Caroline in securing the Hanoverian succession to the English throne. She engaged Daniel Waterhouse in discussions regarding financing Thomas Newcomen's Stirling engine project, which she favored partly because she saw it as an alternative to slavery.
She assisted Caroline in escaping a Jacobite assassination plot in London by plotting a diversion, dressing as Caroline and taking a carriage ride through the city as a decoy. During this diversion, she was confronted by Édouard de Gex, who had been Jack Shaftoe's overseer in a long-standing French plot to destroy the English currency. De Gex planned to kill Eliza with a nicotine dagger, but Jack intervened, and Eliza killed de Gex in the ensuing confrontation in the London Opera by impaling de Gex through the chest with a cello.
Eliza continued to support Caroline, primarily from Leicester House.
Reunion with Jack[]
Following Jack's attempted execution for coinage and subsequent survival, Eliza was reunited with him, and they lived out their days together in the court of Louis XIV.