Seductive Facts About Historical Mistresses
For most of recorded history, marriage was all business.
Physical and emotional fulfillment could be happy accidents, but they were certainly not prerequisites for wedlock. For such things, a man (and it was mostly men, sorry) had to step outside the bounds of holy matrimony. And if the partners were high-profile, such extramarital risky business could often shape the face of international politics and culture. Some pages in the book of history were written by characters engaged in some extremely bad behaviour.
Below are some truly spicy and fun facts about women (and men) from the “wrong” side of the bed sheets.
1. Mega Mom
By far the most powerful harem mistress in history was Kösem Sultan. After the passing of Ahmed I’s mother, the Greek-born slave concubine rose to become the chief consort of Ahmed I when she and her “husband” were barely 15. Kösem was regent to her young sons, Murad IV and Ibrahim I, and her grandson, Mehmed IV, and lived to be about 62—her career in politics spanned over 40 years and she was mourned as "Vālide-i Maḳtūle" (liquidated mother) when she lost her life, liquidated by the mother of Sultan Mehmed IV in yet more intrigue.
2. Demise of a Mistress
Mary Hamilton was the royal mistress to Peter the Great, and lady-in-waiting to Empress Catherine I, when she was executed for the theft of Catherine’s jewelry, abortion, and the liquidation of her own infant.
After she was decapitated, Peter held her head up to the crowd and, being the learned man he was, gave a lesson on anatomy before kissing her goodbye.
3. Maybe She’s Born with It, Maybe it’s Taking Gold
Despite being 20 years his senior, Diane de Poitiers kept the interests of Henri II of France for as long as the king lived. It was only rumored that Poitiers drank liquid gold to maintain her legendary looks.
However, in 2009, French scientists examined Poitiers’s body and found that her hair contained gold levels at 500 times the human average.
4. The Mistress Sisters
Years before Henry VIII married his second queen, Anne Boleyn, he conducted an affair with Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn. It was this sisterly(-in-law) sojourn which formed the basis of Henry’s annulment from his marriage to Anne in 1536.
To Henry’s new church, his previous relations with Mary rendered his union to Anne incestuous and thus invalid. But don’t worry—the marriage was just valid enough that he still could charge and execute Anne for adultery.
If you ever wondered kind of power an old-timey monarch could wield, just remember that. King Henry broke the rules of his own church to marry the sister of a woman he'd already bedded... and then pinned everything on his wife.
That's a misuse of power it's hard to even imagine.
