Anne Boleyn Could Have Done Better

Just because you're a historic general or emperor doesn't mean you didn't strike out now and then. Some historical figures were celebrated or notorious for their dramatic love lives as much as for their accomplishments, some of which were world-altering. Here are 20 historical figures who were unlucky in love. 

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1. Peter Abelard

Abelard was a brilliant philosopher who suffered a very famous romantic tragedy. His secret relationship with Heloise produced a child, but when her family discovered what was happening, they retaliated. He was publicly humiliated and castrated. 

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2. Heloise

You can't talk about Peter Abelard without also mentioning Heloise. She suffered great heartbreak after her illicit affair with Abelard was revealed. She was forced into a convent and was robbed of experiencing the married life she wanted.

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3. Cleopatra VII

Cleopatra's intimate alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were as political as romantic, but both ended in tragedy. Caesar was assassinated, and Antony committed suicide. Very few people can say that their love life helped end empires. 

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4. Mark Antony

A celebrated Roman general, Mark Antony's relationship with Cleopatra altered Roman politics and alienated his allies. His romance contributed to his military defeat at Actium, which led to his eventual suicide. 

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5. Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn's political ascension was tied to the passion that Henry VIII had for her, reshaping English history in the process. She was exposed to dangerous court intrigue, and when she failed to give birth to a male, her enemies rallied. She was executed in 1526. 

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6. Catherine Howard

Howard's brief tenure as Henry VIII's queen was a tragic tale of love. She was plucked from obscurity to marry the king, only to have her past indiscretions used against her. She was arrested and executed for adultery when she was only nineteen years old. 

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7. Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon had quite the volatile love life. His passionate marriage to Joséphine helped him politically, but she failed to give him an heir. Napoleon divorced her in 1810 despite his deep affection for her. He then married Marie Louise, who produced a son, but his career collapsed due to military defeat, and he was exiled.

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8. Joséphine de Beauharnais

Joséphine captivated Napoleon's heart and helped launch his political career. Their marriage, however, was complicated by infidelity and her inability to give birth to a male heir. 

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9. Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven's personal life was fraught with romantic failures and isolation. He wrote love letters to an anonymous "immortal beloved" whose identity is debated to this day. He proposed marriage to several women but never achieved a lasting union.

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10. Frida Kahlo

Kahlo's marriage to Diego Rivera was passionate and destructive. There were mutual infidelities and a lot of co-dependence. She endured many emotional wounds from Rivera's actions, including an affair with her sister. 

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11. Lord Byron

Lord Byron's love life was rife with scandal and quite turbulent. He was famous for having affairs across social classes and was prone to developing intense attachments, some of which ended in reputational ruin. 

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12. Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh's life was filled with artistic vision and a wealth of romantic misfortune. He suffered repeated rejections, including a failed marriage proposal to his cousin, and had a painful liaison with a sex worker. 

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13. Sylvia Plath

Plath's marriage to Ted Hughes devolved over time into betrayal and trauma. Hughes had many affairs, and the pressures from the era caused their marriage to disintegrate quickly. The couple separated in 1962, and she took her own life in 1963.

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14. Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda's marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald was as destructive as it was passionate. Their relationship soured due to mutual alcoholism and their competitive ambitions. Zelda was eventually institutionalized with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. 

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15. F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic life mirrored his literary career. They had brilliant beginnings, only for them to erode from excess and poor judgment. He cheated on Zelda many times, and his anxieties about his career fractured his marriage. 

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16. King Ludwig II of Bavaria

Ludwig II is remembered as the "Mad King", and his romantic desires often went unfulfilled. He never married and harbored many romantic longings that never materialized. Eventually, his political enemies removed him from power, and he died under mysterious circumstances.

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17. Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was famously unmarried. She is believed to have done so out of a mix of personal preference and political necessity. She only pursued marriage for political reasons, but refused to compromise her sovereignty. 

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18. Oscar Wilde

Some of Wilde's romantic relationships were intense, whereas others were ruinous. His romantic entanglements resulted in public scandal, and he was even criminally prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned in 1895. He emerged from prison broke and with his career and health in severe decline. 

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19. Mary Shelley

Shelley's love life was marked by defiance and tragedy. She eloped with Percy Bysshe at eighteen years old and endured the loss of multiple children. Bysshe drowned in 1822, leaving Shelley a young widow responsible for her son. She spent decades editing his work while managing her grief.

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20. Emily Brontë

Brontë's love life was somewhat private and always intense. She never married, and contemporary accounts suggest she held deep attachments that never led to lasting romantic partnerships. She died from tuberculosis at thirty years old without ever experiencing what so many of her iconic characters did in her writing. 

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