Some of the most bloody, heartbreaking, and shocking marriages in history also happen
to be some of the worst. The truth is that a good many royal nuptials were simply terrible;
ranging from having to marry close relatives to torrid love affairs that rapidly deteriorated.
More often than not, royal husbands and wives lived unhappily ever after.
For many royals, the issue was exacerbated by the fact that weddings were frequently economic
deals. In reality, the notion of a love marriage is a comparatively recent concept;
while most royals throughout history entered into arranged marriages.
Young royal adults depended on parents and advisers to often followed their brains
instead of their feelings into marriage. Too many marriages were decided upon as
the means to either consolidate territory or build alliances with rival royal houses.
Royal spouses frequently faced high risks situations. Kings and queens may divorce their
wives for political reasons or simply because it was possible that a marriage between total
strangers just wasn't going to cut it. Rocky marriages sometimes meant warfare,
and royal marriage rules meant that kings and queens were under increased scrutiny.
Since monarchs needed to produce the next generation of rulers, the royal marriage bed
was a political matter, and the royal bedding ceremony was the means for courtiers to be sure
that newlywed kings and queens consummated their marriage and made things official.
Despite the fact that many people throughout the world have dreamt of marrying into royalty,
the history of failed royal unions demonstrates that fantasizing about
being married to a prince is frequently preferable to actually doing so.
Here just a few of The Most Destructive And Abusive Royal Marriages In History.
The Most Destructive And Abusive Royal Marriages In History
1) George I Was A Brute Who Beat Up His Wife And Locked Her Away
George I was a King of Great Britain and Ireland in the 18th century and before he became king,
he was an Elector of Hanover in what is today modern Germany
In 1682 when he was 22, George's mother arranged for him to marry
the very wealthy Germanic noble by the name of Sophia Dorothea of Cella.
The marriage was doomed from the start since George felt it was totally within
his rights to have mistresses, all of which he flaunted in front of his young bride.
And things got only worse when Sophia, feeling alone, neglected and betrayed,
thought she too should have some love in her life and
began a relationship with a handsome Swedish count by the name of Philip.
When George confronted his wife about the relationship, things got heated,
and he physically attacked Sophia and began beating her.
When brutish George left Hanover to assume his new role as King of Great Britain in 1714,
he did so without Sophia at his side. He had already divorced her in 1694 and
subsequently imprisoned her in the castle of Ahlden, where she died 32 years later.
2) Queen Isabella Overthrew Her Husband With The Help Of Her Lover.
Queen Isabella of France was around 12 years
old when she married 24 year old King Edward II of England in 1308.
At their wedding, Edward outed himself when he kissed someone else and not the bride.
Even more shocking to the young bride was that the king kissed another man instead of her.
Add to that Edward's blatant obsession with a number of
male favorites including Piers Gaveston (the man he kissed at their wedding),
and then Hugh Despenser; all of which put a pretty big strain on the marriage.
Isabella began an affair with Roger Mortimer, and with his help she launched a successful
coup against her husband. Edward was soon imprisoned, and in 1327 died, some say murdered,
on the orders of Isabella and Mortimer by having a red-hot poker inserted somewhere rather painful.
3) Princess Caroline Matilda Unwittingly Married An Insane Danish King.
Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain - George III's youngest sister - was married
off to 17 year old King Christian VII of Denmark at the tender age of 15 in 1766.
But she found no happiness in her new kingdom. In fact, King Christian was suffering from
severe mental instabilities and alcoholism that pushed their fragile relationship to the edge.
He was also known for his sexual addictions,
self-mutilation, and bouts of hallucinations and paranoia.
Along with Christian's behavioral problems, he had a cruel streak demonstrated by the time he let
Caroline Matilda know that he didn't think much of her by hanging her portrait in the royal lavatory.
He publicly declared that he could not love Caroline Matilda because
it was (quote) unfashionable to love one’s wife,(unquote),
and he proceeded to prowl the streets of Copenhagen in search of whores.
And when Dr. Johann Friedrich Struensee was called in to treat the king, he instead took the reins
of government, enacted Enlightened reforms, and even began a relationship with the young queen.
Things did not end well for either of them. Struensee was
ousted and brutally executed while Matilda lost her title of Queen,
and was forcibly separated from her children whom she never saw again.
4. King George IV Was Drunk And Crying At The Altar.
In 1795, George, Prince of Wales – the future King George IV – married his cousin, Princess Caroline
of Brunswick. It wasn't a union of love, much like many royal marriages in the period. George needed
help paying off some debts, (630,000 pounds to be exact), and Caroline had lots of money.
When George saw his bride for the first time, he exclaimed, “I am not well. Get me a glass
of brandy!” He regarded Caroline as unattractive and even went so far as to call her unhygienic.
It went downhill from there. On their wedding day, George was so drunk that he couldn't stand on his
own, and two dukes had to hold him up at the altar. He even wept openly during the ceremony.
The couple stayed together long enough to get pregnant,
and Caroline gave birth to Princess Charlotte nine months after the wedding.
The couple separated and, once George became king in 1820, he shocked Britain by attempting
to divorce Caroline but she died the following year so that didn't happen.
5. Henry II And Eleanor of Aquitaine's Marital Tensions Broke Out Into Open Warfare.
One of the great romances of the medieval world was the relationship between King Henry
II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Sparks flew when they first met: Henry was the young,
handsome future king of England, and Eleanor was the beautiful, captivating wife of the
king of France. But they didn't let a little thing like Eleanor's marital status stand in
their way - she got an annulment in 1152, and Henry and Eleanor married a few weeks later.
Though their marriage was royal, it also was open to the same strains as
any other. Henry's eye wandered, and by the 1170s the marriage was
beyond the point of repair. He even installed a mistress at his side.
Bitter, brilliant, and bold, Eleanor convinced her sons to rebel against their father in 1173.
Henry put down the rebellion, and, not trusting his shrewd wife, had her locked
away for the last 16 years of his life. When her sons Richard and then John inherited the throne,
she again became a critical actor in the royal court until her own death in 1204.
6. Peter The Great Hated His Wife So Much That He Committed Her To A Convent.
Russia's Peter I may be remembered as
"the Great" but to his first wife Eudoxia, he was anything but that.
Eudoxia married the tsar in 1689 in a wedding that Peter's mother had
brokered. Though the marriage produced three children, Peter grew bored with his wife.
In 1698, after nine years of marriage, Peter felt it was time to move on.
So, he divorced Eudoxia and sent her to a convent. With his first wife out
of the picture, Peter secretly married his peasant-mistress a few years later.
7. The Wedding of King Henry IV of France And Marguerite
De Valois Led To The Massacre Of Thousands.
The marriage with perhaps the most bloody and awful consequences was that of Princess
Marguerite de Valois and Henri of Navarre France.
Their marriage was intended to unite the feuding factions of French Christians
with the Protestant Huguenots on one side and the Catholics on the other.
Marguerite was the willful daughter of Catholic King Henri II of France and his
calculating wife Catherine de Medici, and Henri was the Protestant King of Navarre.
Their wedding in Paris on August 18, 1572, brought both Catholics and Protestants to
the city to celebrate the royal nuptials. But the spirit of Christian unity was short-lived.
On the night of August 24th, the horrifying Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre took place
on the orders of Marguerite's brother, King Charles IX and her mother Catherine de Medici,
and Paris's streets ran red with the blood of thousands of slaughtered Protestants.
It was an ominous way to begin a new marriage which turned out to be true
when the pair annulled their marriage in 1599.
By the way, if you want to know more about Marguerite's mother, the notorious Catherine
de Medici known as the serpent queen, be sure to check out the videos that I made all about her.
You'll find them in a playlist on my channel. Thanks for watching.