Royal Couples Who Lived Unhappily Ever After

July 26, 2001 -- The marital woes and rows of Charles and Diana were played out in the pages of the British tabs. But the warring Waleses looked like lovebirds compared to the nuptial nightmares endured by some of Charles' ancestors. Here's a look at some royal marriages made in hell.

Allies Turned Enemies

Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Married 1152

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, was the most scandalous woman in Europe when her husband, King Louis VII of France, divorced her. But she was also beautiful and very, very rich. Still, it came as quite a shock (especially to Louis) when she up and married a man 12 years her junior — Henry, Duke of Normandy, soon to become King of England. Together, they forged an empire that stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees.

They produced eight children, but the marriage deteriorated. Henry was notoriously unfaithful, even seducing a French princess who was promised to one of his own sons. When their sons rebelled, Eleanor supported them. Henry responded by bundling her off to a castle, where she was kept under house arrest for 16 years.

But Eleanor had the last laugh. When Henry died, she returned to the world stage, became a major power broker, and saw two of her sons become king. She led the defense of a besieged castle when she was 80, and once signed a letter to the pope "Eleanor, by the Wrath of God, Queen of England." She lived to be 82, quite an accomplishment for the Middle Ages.

The She-Wolf of France

Edward II and Isabella of France,Married 1308

Known to movie buffs as the unhappily married Prince and Princess of Wales in Braveheart, they were just as miserable in real life. "Isabella the Fair" was very young when she married the new King of England, but it didn't take her very long to realize her husband was more interested in his male lovers than in her. Somehow, they managed to produce four children. Edward neglected his wife and lavished all his attention on his favorites, who used the situation to line their own pockets. Finally, Isabella met not Mel Gibson, but a disgruntled nobleman called Roger Mortimer. She raised an army and overthrew Edward, putting their son on the throne in his place. Edward, on Isabella's orders — or at least with her blessing — was done away with in a particularly gruesome manner.

Isabella had been very popular with the people, but the murder of her husband and Mortimer's greed changed all that. Soon she acquired a new nickname — the She-Wolf of France. Her son, Edward III, seized power in a coup, executed Mortimer, and shut Isabella up in a remote castle. She lived there 27 years until her death at age 63.

Royal Revenge

George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle, Married 1682

Before he became king of England, George was the Elector of Hanover in Germany. He was married to his first cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, and neither was particularly happy about it. George was notoriously unfaithful — one of his mistresses was reputed to be his half sister — but he was furious when Sophia Dorothea was detected in an affair with a Swedish count. The unfortunate count disappeared, presumably killed on George's orders. George divorced Sophia Dorothea, but that wasn't sufficient revenge. The 28-year-old princess was shut up in a castle, where she languished till her death at age 60.

The Bridegroom Needs a Brandy

George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, Married 1795

When George, then Prince of Wales, first lay eyes on his bride in 1795, he remarked, "I am not well; pray get me a glass of brandy." Caroline, a German princess with an aversion to washing, wasn't too impressed either. Somehow the couple managed to produce a daughter, and then they separated.

Caroline went abroad, only returning when George succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, George III (the one who lost the American colonies). But she was in for a shock. George wanted her gone so badly that he tried to divorce her on grounds of adultery (which was treason and thus a capital crime for the wife of a king). Caroline put on a spirited defense before the House of Commons. Mobs turned out to show support for her, so in the end George decided to drop it.

However, when Caroline showed up at his coronation — where she should have been crowned queen — he had the doors to Westminster Abbey barred. Utterly humiliated, Caroline died 19 days later.

The Marrying Man

Henry VIIIm. Catherine of Aragon 1509m. Anne Boleyn 1533m. Jane Seymour 1536m. Anne of Cleves 1540m. Katherine Howard 1540m. Katherine Parr 1543

The matrimonial hijinks of Henry VIII leave all other royal mismatches in the dust. The obsession behind Henry's many trips to the altar was his need for sons — he wanted an heir and a spare.

Henry divorced his first wife, the dignified Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. He broke with the pope to do so, and when Catherine refused to recognize the divorce, he harassed and hounded her till at last she died.

His second wife, the alluring Anne Boleyn, faced trumped-up accusations of adultery and incest once Henry became tired of her waspish wit. She was beheaded on Tower Hill.

Wife No. 3, meek, colorless Jane Seymour, gave Henry the son he craved, and died of it.

For his fourth bride, Henry took Anne of Cleves, a German princess who looks quite solemnly pretty in her surviving portraits. Henry, however, took one look and decided he wanted to be rid of her. Anne, who was probably even more horrified at the sight of her groom, acquiesced in his plans for divorce, and was able to live out an uneventful but comfortable life on the English estates he granted her.

His fifth wife, Katherine Howard, was a merry girl still in her teens. Henry was enchanted with his "rose without a thorn," until details of her sexually adventurous past came to light, followed by accusations of adultery. Katherine asked that a block be brought to her in the Tower of London so she could practice laying her head upon it before her execution. Like her cousin Anne Boleyn, she was beheaded.

The sixth wife, Katherine Parr, survived Henry, but her story is still an unhappy one. She had been married twice to much older husbands and widowed twice, and was about to finally choose a husband to her liking when Henry's eye fell on her. There was no way out: Katherine married the fat, middle-aged king and nursed his ulcerated leg. The scholarly, pious Katherine nearly signed her own death warrant when she beat Henry in a theological argument, but after hours of weeping she managed to soften his heart before he could send her to the block.

When Henry died, Katherine married Tom Seymour, brother of the late Queen Jane. He was the man she had hoped to marry before Henry stepped up to the plate. But Tom did not make her happy. Katherine, who had been childless through three marriages, finally became pregnant. But Tom soon turned his attention to his wife's young stepdaughter, Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I.) No longer able to stand the flirtations going on under her own nose, Katherine sent the girl away. The former queen gave birth to a baby girl, and then died.