In the Name of Love

Love is a powerful emotion that can lead people to make irrational and impulsive decisions. History is full of examples of individuals who abandoned their wealth, power, and status for the sake of love, sometimes at great personal cost or danger. Some of these decisions are well-documented, while others may be embellished or romanticized over time. With that in mind, here are 20 historical figures who gave everything up in the name of love.

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1. Napoleon

On the day she met young, rising star Napoleon Bonaparte, widowed socialite Joséphine de Beauharnais didn't have an eye for him. After being broke and recently heartbroken by another lover, she agreed to marry the soldier who fell completely in love with her. The pair would later become each other's first love, having a scandalous, passionate, and tumultuous romance of love and infidelity. While Joséphine cheated on Napoleon during one of his military campaigns, she later found true love in him after he turned cold. The pair eventually divorced, but Napoleon still remembered her.

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2. Prince Edward

King Edward VIII’s affair with American divorcee Wallis Simpson is one of the most scandalous in British royal history. Forced to choose between love and his duty to the crown, Edward VIII gave up the throne in 1936 in order to marry the woman he loved. Claiming he could not possibly rule without the help and support of the woman he loved, he made one of the most romantic proposals of all time. The couple were exiled from the British royal family, and Wallis was shunned by Edward’s family, but the two stayed together for the rest of their lives.

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3. Cleopatra

Few romances have burned as brightly as that of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Theirs was a love affair that began as a political marriage of convenience, but which developed into a burning passion that defied the might of empires. Despite being married to Octavian's sister, Antony could not stay away from Cleopatra, and by returning to her, they were both doomed.

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4. Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's love affair was as famous as their stardom. From their first meeting on the set of Cleopatra in 1963, their chemistry was instant, scandalous, and unstoppable. The pair left their spouses to be together and became one of Hollywood's most iconic pairings. Their passion was undeniable, but destructive: fame, fortune, and addiction. They divorced, remarried, and divorced again, never able to live with or without one another.

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5. Robert Browning

Poet Elizabeth Barrett was held prisoner by her tyrannical father, who demanded that none of his children marry. When Robert Browning, a fellow poet, began to write her, their mutual love of language grew into a deep love for each other. Elizabeth defied her father, married Browning, and fled to Italy, where she was finally able to live as she wished. Her father disinherited her, sending back every letter she sent him unopened.

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6. John Lennon

Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono met John Lennon in 1966, and they fell in love. Both of them were married to other people, but the two split up with their spouses and became involved with each other, both in their personal lives and their art. Ono and Lennon promoted peace and created new forms of music together. Lennon's love for Ono never faltered, despite Ono getting a bad rap for “breaking up” The Beatles.

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7. Abelard

In Paris in the 12th century, gifted student Heloise fell in love with her much older tutor, philosopher Peter Abelard. She bore his child and they married in secret, but Abelard was later castrated by her uncle out of revenge, and both entered religion. They remained in each other's hearts, however, as a series of passionate letters between the two, still in existence today, attests.

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8. Catherine the Great

Catherine's ascent to the throne was also one of love. Having deposed and caused the death of her incompetent, philandering, and treacherous husband, Czar Peter III, she met and fell in love with the fiercely loyal, one-eyed, daredevil soldier Grigory Potemkin. Their relationship was as much a political and military one as it was romantic: Potemkin was her most trusted friend, confidant, and lover, and also masterminded the successful expansion of Catherine's empire. They eventually parted, but remained close until his passing.

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9. Henry VIII

Anne Boleyn captivated Henry VIII, but would not be another of his mistresses. She demanded that the king make her queen, and to do so he broke with the Catholic Church. Henry created his own Church of England and divorced his first wife so he could marry Anne. Their reign was both political and personal, the passion that joined them ending in heartbreak and execution. Anne was unable to give Henry a son, and in 1536, was beheaded on trumped-up charges.

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10. Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's love was a tumultuous affair full of passion, infidelity, and artistic inspiration. They were a mismatch in almost every way: young and impressionable versus middle-aged and established; introspective versus gregarious. But they also shared a creative spark that helped them both produce some of their best work. Despite Diego's well-known affair with Frida's sister, the pair could never stay away from each other for long. They even remarried after a period of divorce, the love they shared being fierce, flawed, and eternal, much like the art they created.

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11. Madame de Pompadour

A fortune teller told young Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, who became Madame de Pompadour, that she would win a king's heart. Riding her horse across King Louis XV's hunting grounds, she did just that. With the king's love, she became his official mistress and closest confidante. Pompadour went from noblewoman to the most powerful woman in the court.

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12. Queen Victoria

In an era when women were to wait for a man to propose, Queen Victoria asked Prince Albert to marry her. She was a reigning monarch, and proper etiquette at the time dictated no one could propose to her, so she decided to take her destiny into her own hands. The match became one of the most famous royal love stories of all time, characterized by adoration, companionship, and respect. Albert's passing in 1861 left the queen bereaved and heartbroken; she wore black for more than 40 years until her death in 1901.

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13. Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí met Gala when she was married to another artist. However, when the two met, they immediately fell in love. Gala left her husband for Dalí and became the surrealist painter's muse, manager, and obsession for the rest of his life. Their relationship was unique, and they spent their time making art and creating a fascinating lifestyle. He was never unfaithful or without love for Gala, even showing her portrait as the Virgin Mary to the Pope to get the blessing of the Church.

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14. Richard Wagner

Composer Richard Wagner showed his love in words and in music that defied the ages. In 1870, he presented his wife, Cosima, with an orchestra playing the work he had composed for her as a “symphonic birthday greeting.” Known later as the Siegfried Idyll, it brought tears to her eyes and to all their household. It was to become one of Wagner's most beloved pieces.

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15. Helen of Troy

Legend has it that Helen of Sparta was the world's most beautiful woman, and when Paris of Troy beheld her, he risked all to make her his. The two lovers eloped, setting off a decade-long Trojan War that shattered lives on both sides. Said to be blessed by Aphrodite but cursed by fate, their passion became eternal. Helen would be known as “the face that launched a thousand ships.”

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16. Hadrian

Roman Emperor Hadrian had a great love for the young Greek Antinous. The two of them traveled the world and hunted together, forming an unbreakable bond. But one day, Antinous fell into the Nile and drowned. Hadrian was so heartbroken that he made his lover a god. For a mortal, this was an extraordinary honor. Statues, temples, and even a city were created to commemorate the young man.

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17. John Adams

John and Abigail Adams's courtship was revealed in over 1,000 letters exchanged between the two over the course of their relationship, during the Revolutionary War and in years after. She was his closest friend, advisor, and confidante, and in many ways his intellectual equal in a time when that was uncommon. Their letters show a relationship based on mutual respect and affection, and they both seem to have drawn great support from their correspondence. Despite the birth of a new country, love was the one thing that did not change for the Adamses.

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18. John Keats

The lively and flirtatious Fanny Brawne became both inspiration and heartbreak for the young poet John Keats. After a joyful engagement, poverty and Keats' advancing tuberculosis prevented the couple from marrying. His yearning for Fanny inspired some of Keats's most passionate and famous poetry, including the sonnet Bright Star. Keats passed at 25 without ever having married his soulmate, leaving behind love letters as poignant as his poems.

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19. Mary Shelley

Mary Godwin fell in love with the married poet Percy Shelley, a match society and morality could not allow. They fled to Europe, shocking the world but igniting each other's minds and bodies. They read and wrote with Lord Byron and other luminaries, and during one summer storm, Mary wrote the novel Frankenstein that would live beyond them both. Mary did not remarry after Percy passed, proclaiming she could never love another genius like him.

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20. Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly was a Hollywood star at the top of her game when she met Prince Rainier of Monaco and decided to walk away from it all for love. The two met on the French Riviera while Kelly was shooting a movie and fell in love at first sight. Grace swapped the movies for a royal life, becoming a princess and a mother of three. When she passed suddenly in 1982, Rainier was heartbroken. He never remarried, devoting his life to the woman who made Monaco a real-life fairy tale.

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