Eliza Alice Lynch (Charleville, County Cork, Ireland, 19 November 1833 – Paris, France, 25 July 1886) was the Irish mistress-wife of Francisco Solano López, president of Paraguay.

Slandered as the most vilified woman in Latin American history, she was dubbed as "an ambitious courtesan" who seduced the heir apparent of the Government of Paraguay, Francisco Solano López, turning him into "a bloodthirsty dictator."

She accompanied him, but at eighteen years of age, due to deteriorating health,[3] she returned to Paris to live with her mother in the Strafford household.

The last child she would bear to López, Leopoldo, was born in 1867 in the midst of the Paraguayan War, and died soon afterwards of dysentery, as a result of the poor conditions at the front.

Protest made by Elisa A. Lynch) she states that she had actually no knowledge of and did not meddle in political affairs, rather dedicating her time during the war to helping the wounded and the innumerable families which followed López wherever he went.

[12] After being taken prisoner she was taken on board a ship called the Princesa (Princess) to Asunción, where she was banished from the nation by the newly established provisional government, constituted by Paraguayans who had fought in favour of the allied forces and against López's army.

Over one hundred years later, her body was exhumed and brought back to Paraguay where the dictator General Alfredo Stroessner proclaimed her a national heroine.

During her time as First Lady, Eliza Lynch educated Paraguayan society in many European customs and was largely responsible for the introduction of social events and clubs.

[citation needed] Eliza Lynch is often noted as the Paraguayan predecessor to the Argentine Evita (without the change of heart from aristocratic elitism to champion of the downtrodden).

Due to the melodramatic appeal of her story, many fictionalized accounts of her life were written at the time and up to the present day, but the historical record is somewhat ignored and liberties are taken to maximize dramatic effect.

Novels include: See also The Shadows of Eliza Lynch by Sian Rees (Headline Review (6 January 2003)) and The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne (William Heinemann, London 2003).

(Spanish) ISBN 987-96054-8-9 Pancha Garmendia y Elisa Lynch Opera en cinco actos by Augusto Roa Bastos.

(English) ISBN 0-06-010487-2 The play Visions (1978) by Louis Nowra depicts Lynch and López leading Paraguay to disaster in the Paraguayan War.