Affair

In one account detailing Rizal's 1887 visit to Prague, Maximo Viola wrote that Rizal had succumbed
to a 'lady of the camellias'. Viola, a friend of Rizal's and an early financier of Noli Me Tángere, was
alluding to Dumas's 1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about a man who fell in love with
a courtesan. While noting Rizal's affair, Viola provided no detals about its duration or nature. [29][30][note 6]

Association with Leonor Rivera

See also: Leonor Rivera

A crayon portrait of Leonor Rivera by José Rizal

Leonor Rivera is thought to have inspired the character of María Clara in Noli Me Tángere and El
Filibusterismo.[31] Rivera and Rizal first met in Manila when Rivera was 14 years old and Rizal was
16. When Rizal left for Europe on May 3, 1882, Rivera was 16 years old. Their correspondence
began after Rizal left a poem for her.[32]
Their correspondence helped Rizal stay focused on his studies in Europe. They employed codes in
their letters because Rivera's mother did not favor Rizal. In a letter from Mariano Katigbak dated
June 27, 1884, she referred to Rivera as Rizal's "betrothed". Katigbak described Rivera as having
been greatly affected by Rizal's departure, and frequently sick because of insomnia.
When Rizal returned to the Philippines on August 5, 1887, Rivera and her family had moved back
to Dagupan, Pangasinan. Rizal's father forbade the young man to see Rivera in order to avoid
putting her family in danger. Rizal was already labeled by the criollo elite as
a filibustero or subversive[32] because of his novel Noli Me Tángere. Rizal wanted to marry Rivera
while he was still in the Philippines because she had been so faithful to him. Rizal asked permission
from his father one more time before his second departure from the Philippines, but he never met
her again.
In 1888, Rizal stopped receiving letters from Rivera for a year, although he continued to write to her.
Rivera's mother favored an Englishman named Henry Kipping, a railway engineer who fell in love
with Rivera.[32][33] The news of Leonor Rivera's marriage to Kipping devastated Rizal.
His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on pieces of paper.
He had visited Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, and impressed the man's daughter, Consuelo,
who write about Rizal. In her diary, she said Rizal had regaled them with his wit, social graces, and
sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on Antonio de Morga's writings, he became a
regular guest in the home of Reinhold Rost of the British Museum, who referred to him as "a gem of
a man."[26][note 7] The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts in Germany
saved even napkins that Rizal had made sketches and notes on. They were ultimately bequeathed
to the Rizal family to form a treasure trove of memorabilia.

Relationship with Josephine Bracken

Further information: Josephine Bracken

Josephine Bracken was Rizal's common-law wife whom he reportedly married shortly before his execution.

In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman from Hong Kong. She had
accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his eyes checked by Rizal. [34] After
frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love. They applied to marry but, because of Rizal's
reputation from his writings and political stance, the local priest Father Obach would hold the
ceremony only if Rizal could get permission from the Bishop of Cebu. As Rizal refused to return to
practicing Catholicism, the bishop refused permission for an ecclesiastical marriage. [6]
After accompanying her father to Manila on her return to Hong Kong, and before heading back
to Dapitan to live with Rizal, Josephine introduced herself to members of Rizal's family in Manila. His
mother suggested a civil marriage, which she believed to be a lesser sacrament but less sinful to
Rizal's conscience than making any sort of political retraction in order to gain permission from the
Bishop.[35] Rizal and Josephine lived as husband and wife in a common-law marriage in Talisay in
Dapitan. The couple had a son, but he lived only a few hours. Rizal named him after his father
Francisco.[36]

In Brussels and Spain (1890–1892)

In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels as he was preparing for the publication of his annotations
of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609). He lived in the boarding house of the
sisters, Catherina and Suzanna Jacoby, who had a niece Suzanna ("Thil"), age 16.
Historian Gregorio F. Zaide says that Rizal had "his romance with Suzanne Jacoby, 45, the petite
niece of his landladies." Belgian Pros Slachmuylders, however, believed that Rizal had a romance
with the 17-year-old niece, Suzanna Thil, as his other liaisons were all with young women. [37] He
found records clarifying their names and ages.
Rizal's Brussels stay was short-lived; he moved to Madrid, giving the young Suzanna a box of
chocolates. She wrote to him in French: "After your departure, I did not take the chocolate. The box
is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t delay too long writing us because I wear out the
soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see if there is a letter from you. There will never be
any home in which you are so loved as in that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come
back…"[37] In 2007, Slachmuylders' group arranged for an historical marker honoring Rizal to be
placed at the house.[37]
He published Dimanche des Rameaux (Palm Sunday), a socio-political essay, in Berlin on 30
November 1886. He discussed the significance of Palm Sunday in socio-political terms:
"This entry [of Jesus into Jerusalem] decided the fate of the jealous priests, the Pharisees, of all
those who believed themselves the only ones who had the right to speak in the name of God, of
those who would not admit the truths said by others because they have not been said by them. That
triumph, those hosannas, all those flowers, those olive branches, were not for Jesus alone; they
were the songs of the victory of the new law, they were the canticles celebrating the dignification of
man, the liberty of man, the first mortal blow directed against despotism and slavery". [38]
Shortly after its publication, Rizal was summoned by the German police, who suspected him of being
a French spy.[39]
The content of Rizal's writings changed considerably in his two most famous novels, Noli Me
Tángere, published in Berlin in 1887, and El Filibusterismo, published in Ghent in 1891. For the
latter, he used funds borrowed from his friends. These writings angered both the Spanish colonial
elite and many educated Filipinos due to their symbolism. They are critical of Spanish friars and the
power of the Church. Rizal's friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, a professor and historian born in Austria-
Hungary, wrote that the novel's characters were drawn from life and that every episode could be
repeated on any day in the Philippines.[40]
Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna in the former Austro-Hungarian
Empire and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him from writing the
preface of El filibusterismo, after he had translated Noli Me Tángere into German. As Blumentritt had
warned, these books resulted in Rizal's being prosecuted as the inciter of revolution. He was
eventually tried by the military, convicted, and executed. His books were thought to contribute to
the Philippine Revolution of 1896, but other forces had also been building for it.

Leaders of the reform movement in Spain. Left to right: Rizal, del Pilar, and Ponce (c. 1890).

As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, Rizal contributed essays, allegories,
poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona (in this case Rizal used
pen names, "Dimasalang", "Laong Laan" and "May Pagasa"). The core of his writings centers
on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino
people. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: Rizal wrote that the people
of the Philippines were battling "a double-faced Goliath"—corrupt friars and bad government. His
commentaries reiterate the following agenda:[note 8]

 That the Philippines be made a province of Spain (The Philippines was a province of New
Spain – now Mexico, administered from Mexico City from 1565 to 1821. From 1821 to 1898, it
was administered directly from Spain.)
 Representation in the Cortes
 Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars – Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans – in
parishes and remote sitios
 Freedom of assembly and speech
 Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)
The colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reforms. Such Spanish intellectuals as
Morayta, Unamuno, Pi y Margall, and others did endorse them.
In 1890, a rivalry developed between Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar for the leadership of La
Solidaridad and the reform movement in Europe.[41] The majority of the expatriates supported the
leadership of del Pilar.
Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by writing an insulting article
in La Epoca, a newspaper in Madrid. He implied that Rizal's family and friends had been evicted
from their lands in Calamba for not having paid their due rents. The incident (when Rizal was ten)
stemmed from an accusation that Rizal's mother, Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin, but
she said she was trying to help. With the approval of the Church prelates, and without a hearing, she
was ordered to prison in Santa Cruz in 1871. She was forced to walk the ten miles (16 km) from
Calamba. She was released after two-and-a-half years of appeals to the highest court. [24] In 1887,
Rizal wrote a petition on behalf of the tenants of Calamba, and later that year led them to speak out
against the friars' attempts to raise rent. They initiated litigation that resulted in the Dominicans'
evicting them and the Rizal family from their homes. General Valeriano Weyler had the tenant
buildings on the farm torn down.
Upon reading the article, Rizal sent a representative to challenge Retana to a duel. Retana
published a public apology and later became one of Rizal's biggest admirers. He wrote the most
important biography of Rizal, Vida y Escritos del José Rizal.[42][note 9]