Bloody Marriage
Throughout the ages, the royals got hitched for duty (and money), not love
As royal scandals go, the tale of King George IV of England and Princess Caroline of Brunswick is a shocker even by modern tabloid standards. In 1795, the then Prince of Wales--a promiscuous, hard-drinking dandy with a gambling problem--agreed to wed his German cousin so that Parliament would pay off his debts. However, in addition to the fact that the 32-year-old "Prinny" was already secretly and illegally married to an older Catholic named Maria Fitzherbert, he and the short, stocky Caroline (who apparently did not wash herself or her undergarments very often) disliked each other at once. "Harris, I am not well; pray get me a glass of brandy," George instructed his valet after first meeting his bride-to-be. Three days and innumerable drinks later, he hiccupped his way through their wedding ceremony, only to spend the honeymoon night "under the grate where he fell and where I left him," according to his new wife.
While the popular fantasy of the fairy-tale royal wedding persists to this day, with its visions of horse-drawn carriages, sparkling tiaras, and handsome princes, the reality is that many such unions were far less romantic. "Traditionally, British monarchs were expected to marry not for love but to ensure the purity of the dynasty--to make sure the royal bloodline continued and to make suitable alliances with other royal families," says Anna Clark, a professor of history at the University of Minnesota and editor of the Journal of British Studies, who notes that a noble spouse always came with additional territories, a dowry that replenished the royal coffers, a promise to keep the peace, or some other political gain.
Outside activities. One result of the custom of marrying for duty over love was a system replete with royal mistresses, from Charles II's plucky favorite, Nell Gwynn, to Edward VII's longtime lover, Alice Keppel, and her great-granddaughter Camilla Parker Bowles, as well as numerous illegitimate children. "It's the way it's always been, and until very recently indeed, nobody raised an eyebrow for even a minute," says Harry Gelber, a visiting scholar at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University. In fact, when Edward VII lay dying, his wife, Queen Alexandra, summoned Keppel to his bedside so she could see him one last time.
The king of kings, when it came to marital dilemmas, was surely Henry VIII, who famously went through half a dozen wives in his quest to produce a male heir, constantly manipulating the laws of church and state to suit his personal needs. First, the newly crowned 18-year-old monarch wed his dead brother's wife, Catherine of Aragon, in 1509, in order to maintain close diplomatic ties with Spain; but after 20 years, when her looks began to fade (without a son to show for it), Henry moved on to his mistress Anne Boleyn--even though he had to break with Rome and form the Church of England in order to have his first marriage annulled. Boleyn was later convicted of treason and beheaded; the king betrothed himself to Jane Seymour that very night and married her 10 days later, though she died shortly after the birth of Edward VI (who would later be crowned at age 9 and was dead by 16). He next chose Anne of Cleves from a selection of Hans Holbein portraits, although he was less than impressed with her in person, declaring on the morning of their nuptials, "If it were not to satisfy the world and my Realm, I would not do that I must do this day for none earthly thing," and failing to ever consummate the union. Wife No. 5, Catherine Howard, was also beheaded on charges of promiscuity and infidelity, and the twice-widowed Katherine Parr barely escaped the Tower herself after vehemently arguing for the Protestant cause. Still, she managed to outlive her now obese, surly, and fickle husband and marry again.
Love match . In contrast, the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840 marks one of the happiest royal pairings, with a far-reaching legacy for England and all Europe. After an arranged family visit at age 19, the shy monarch quickly became besotted with her cousin, the serious young prince of Saxe-Coburg--"It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert, who is beautiful," she wrote in her diary--and soon proposed to him. They were great partners in work and life and had nine children together, who were eventually wed off to the royal families of almost every country in Europe, including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, and Russia, creating what Victoria herself called "the royal mob" and leading to a relatively peaceful reign, albeit one marked by the queen's great sadness and seclusion after her husband's untimely death in 1861. Even so, marriage for state purposes could only accomplish so much. "There was a tremendous desire for war in Europe at the time, and [Victoria's grandson] Kaiser Wilhelm II, her 'Willy,' and his 'cousin Nicky' [Czar Nicholas II] could not pull away . . . despite their close family relationship, because that's what their people demanded," says Arturo Beeche, editor of the European Royal History Journal, who observes that their descendants also carried the recessive gene for hemophilia into the still shallow royal marriage pool.
Although the power of the monarchy was already on the decline, by this point, convention--and popular opinion--continued to drive royal matches well into the 20th century. In 1936, for example, Edward VIII famously gave up his throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, because, in an ironic twist, divorce is not an option in the Church of England--founded by a king in order to put aside his first wife and marry another--either for prospective spouses or royal couples. Indeed, as royal unions have veered more toward true romance and less toward matters of state, the political reach of the monarchy has declined even further, with today's rulers serving as mere figureheads, says Anna Clark, who is also the author of Scandal: the Sexual Politics of the British Constitution . She adds, "Nowadays, people find that the royal family is just like any other family, with divorces, family quarrels, and scandals--they can't uphold their perfect, conventional image anymore--and it makes many people wonder what the monarchy is for." The fact that would-be kings and queens can now marry almost anyone, be it a longtime mistress or a commoner, adds another dimension to the debate. As Prince Michael of Greece, who married outside the nobility himself, noted in Vanity Fair back in 2003: "[T]he people, as they see their princes choose brides . . . from among their ranks and resemble them more and more in appearance and lifestyle, will one day come to question the purpose monarchies serve if they are no different from them."
As for George IV and Princess Caroline, their relationship ended as outrageously as it began: In 1820, after the death of King George III, the would-be queen, who had been gallivanting across Europe for many years, returned to England, ready to be anointed alongside her husband; however, George instigated a parliamentary investigation into his wife's activities abroad--including an alleged lurid affair with her Italian manservant--with the hope of ending their marriage. The incredibly embarrassing public "trial" ended when the bill against the princess, who remained incredibly popular with the people, was dropped, and in the end, the king did not get his divorce--although Caroline did not get her crown, either. Barred from George's coronation in 1821, she showed up anyway and pounded on the doors of Westminster Abbey, only to be turned away by burly bouncers. She died within weeks and was buried in her native Germany; her husband, who never remarried, passed away in 1830.
This story appears in the April 18, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.