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As the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle draws near, it's the perfect time to look back at the history of royal weddings to anticipate what might unfold. Expect the usual fare—bunting, cakes, and waving flags. If they're fortunate, the biggest issue will be a minor royal showing up in an unflattering hat.
However, it might be wise to prepare for the worst, as history is full of royal weddings gone wrong. Here are 10 of the most catastrophic royal unions in history.
10. George IV and Caroline of Brunswick
Royal weddings can be motivated by many factors, such as diplomacy, inheritance, or even love. In the case of George IV, however, it was money that played a crucial role.
While still a prince, George found himself in significant debt, and the British parliament only agreed to cover it if he entered into a suitable marriage. His cousin Caroline of Brunswick was chosen for this honor and was enticed with flattering portraits of the rather large prince. When she arrived in Britain to meet her future husband, things did not go as planned.
If Caroline was disappointed by George, it paled in comparison to his own judgment of her. He described her as fat, unattractive, short, and foul-smelling, believing she never bathed. In an awkward encounter, he embraced her, then fled, telling his friend, 'Harris, I am not well. Pray, get me a glass of brandy.'
George turned to alcohol to survive the wedding ceremony a few days later. By the end of the day, he was so intoxicated that he collapsed into the fireplace and spent the night there. The couple had one child before parting ways permanently.
When George’s coronation arrived, he banned his wife from attending. She was forcibly removed from the event and driven away at bayonet point.
9. Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves
Henry VIII was hardly a model husband. He broke away from Catholicism to divorce his first wife. He accused his second wife, Anne Boleyn, of adultery and incest, leading to her beheading. After his third wife died following the birth of his long-desired male heir, Henry began searching for a fourth wife.
Unfortunately, many noblewomen across Europe weren't eager to marry him. When he pursued the tall Marie of Guise, she humorously replied, 'I may be big in person, but my neck is small.' Another potential bride, the beautiful Christina of Denmark, was hesitant due to Anne Boleyn’s tragic end. Christina wittily remarked, 'If I had two heads, one should be at the king of England’s disposal.'
Ultimately, Henry was persuaded to marry Anne of Cleves. He had received a flattering portrait of her, and his minister, Thomas Cromwell, claimed that Anne's beauty surpassed that of all other women, 'as the golden Sun excels the silver Moon.'
When she arrived in England, Henry gallantly rode through a storm to greet her with gifts. He burst into her room, only to be immediately disappointed. He stormed out, declaring, 'I like her not.'
It was too late for Henry to back out, and the marriage proceeded. Henry complained to Cromwell, 'My lord, 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.'
Henry found Anne repulsive and refused to consummate the marriage, ultimately annulling it within the same year. Perhaps Anne was fortunate—she outlived Henry and enjoyed a fulfilling life in England without him. Cromwell, however, paid the price for arranging this ill-fated match.
8. Matilda of Tuscany and Welf V
Being a female ruler has always been challenging. In the Middle Ages, it was especially difficult for a woman to retain her throne. Sometimes, the only way to stay in power was by eliminating her husband. Many believed Matilda of Tuscany had a hand in her first husband's death.
Facing an invasion from the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, the Pope advised Matilda to marry again to strengthen her position. In her forties, Matilda became betrothed to Welf V of Bavaria, who was about 16 years old.
Welf was greeted with a grand reception as he arrived in Matilda's lands, and their wedding was set to be marked by 120 days of extravagant festivities. Everything seemed to be falling into place for this royal union.
For some unknown reason, however, the young Welf showed no interest in bedding his bride. Two nights passed without consummation. On the third night, Matilda set a table and placed herself naked upon it in an attempt to entice him.
When Welf hesitated, Matilda slapped him and yelled, 'Get out of here, monster, you don’t deserve our kingdom, you vile thing, viler than a worm or rotten seaweed, don’t let me see you again, or you’ll die a miserable death.'
The marriage ended in failure, and the couple ultimately separated.
7. Philip II of France and Ingeborg
Philip II of France had a tumultuous marital history. He married his first wife when he was just 15, and she was only 10. By the time she was 14, Philip sought to divorce her.
Officially, the reason for the divorce was her failure to produce an heir, but the real motivation was political. The young queen was too well-loved, and Philip was pressured to stay married to her. She did eventually give him a son but died during another childbirth. Philip soon set his sights on a new wife.
Philip sought a marriage with Denmark to strengthen his power. Princess Ingeborg was chosen to become the new French queen. She was described as 'very kind, young of age but old of wisdom.' The couple met for the first time on their wedding day.
The wedding night seemed to be a success in that Philip was able to consummate the marriage with Ingeborg, but it was brief. The following day, during her coronation, the king declared to Ingeborg’s countrymen that he intended to send her home and divorce her immediately. Ingeborg was not pleased and insisted that they were married, and nothing could separate them.
Philip had his unwanted queen confined to various religious houses for the next 20 years in a bid to rid himself of her. Though she was eventually released and restored with the dignity of a queen, Ingeborg and Philip never shared a bed again.
6. Catherine the Great and Tsar Peter
Catherine the Great of Russia had no legitimate claim to the Russian throne. Born a princess from a lesser German noble family, she was chosen to marry Peter, heir to the Russian crown, due to her father's connections with Russia. This grand union might have been expected to delight the young Catherine, but it was far from the fairytale she had imagined.
Peter was cruel and mentally weak. Catherine described him as an 'idiot' and 'a good-for-nothing.' She would later remark, 'I believe the crown of Russia attracted me more than his person.'
During their wedding, Catherine was forced to wear a crown so heavy that it caused her a severe headache. Once in their bedchamber, the prince left her to undress while he went off to drink with the other men. Catherine was left alone for hours until the prince finally stumbled into bed, drunkenly declaring, 'How it would amuse my servants to see us in bed together.' He then fell asleep.
The marriage quickly proved disastrous. Just six months after Peter ascended to the throne as tsar, Catherine orchestrated a coup against him and ruled as empress of Russia in her son’s name for the next 34 years.
5. Henry III of Navarre and Margaret of Valois
Religious divides can spell trouble for any marriage. Henry III, the Protestant king of Navarre, was married to Margaret, the Catholic daughter of the French king. Despite their differences, a grand wedding was set to take place in Paris. Henry’s fellow Protestants gathered in the city to witness the event, and all seemed well.
However, just six days after the wedding, on St. Bartholomew's Day, a brutal wave of killings began targeting Huguenot Protestants in Paris. The violence quickly spread across France, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Trapped in Paris, Henry III narrowly avoided slaughter thanks to his wife. Despite her help, the massacre caused a strain in their marriage.
Despite the ongoing issues caused by his Protestant faith, Henry experienced a change of heart in his later years. When the French king died without a male heir, some suggested Henry as his successor. Yet, his faith stood in his way.
Faced with a choice, Henry converted to Catholicism in order to take the French throne as Henry IV. He famously quipped, 'Paris is well worth a mass.' Unfortunately, the marriage between Henry and Margaret never truly recovered, and both eventually took other lovers.
4. Caracalla’s Proposed Wedding
The Roman Empire had long faced threats from the East, particularly from the Parthians, who were a constant menace to the empire's wealthy eastern provinces. Many emperors had tried, with varying degrees of success, to handle the Parthian problem. In AD 216, it was Emperor Caracalla’s turn to confront the issue. However, the Roman populace wasn’t eager for war, so Caracalla devised a different plan: a marriage alliance.
Caracalla proposed a marriage between himself and the daughter of the Parthian king. Initially, the king rejected the idea, distrusting Caracalla’s intentions. But after being presented with extravagant gifts by the emperor, the Parthian king changed his mind.
Caracalla then marched into the Parthian Empire with his army to celebrate the impending marriage. The Parthians greeted him with music, feasts, and ample drinking, leaving their weapons behind as a gesture of peace.
“Naturally, they did not have their quivers and bows with them. What need for weapons at a wedding?” wrote one historian of the time. At a signal, the Romans slaughtered the wedding guests, and the Parthian king narrowly escaped with his life.
Caracalla’s war was not a success. His gains were fleeting, and less than a year later, he was assassinated while relieving himself on the side of the road.
3. Olga Of Kiev
Olga of Kiev was married to Igor, the ruler of Kievan Rus. Her life might have continued peacefully had it not been for a revolt by the Drevlian tribe, who killed her husband during their uprising.
“They had bent down two birch trees to the prince’s feet and tied them to his legs, then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince’s body apart,” a Byzantine historian tells us. Olga was left to act as regent for her son.
The Drevlians decided to take over by having Olga marry their own Prince Mal. Olga greeted the 20 men sent to convince her by having them burned alive. Despite this, she told Prince Mal that she accepted his marriage proposal but only if he sent many of his important nobles to escort her to the wedding.
When they arrived, she had them roasted in a bathhouse. Next, Olga went to the Drevlians’ capital city with an army and ordered a feast to mourn her dead husband before she would marry Mal. When the Drevlians were drunk, her army murdered 5,000 of them. Then she used pigeons and sparrows with burning cloths attached to burn down hundreds of homes.
After this, Olga converted to Christianity and is today considered a saint.
2. Prince Amadeo Of Savoy And Maria Vittoria Dal Pozzo
While many consider the disasters of the wedding between Prince Amadeo of Savoy and Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo to be apocryphal, they have also been widely reported and are too good to ignore. The troubles are supposed to have begun when Maria’s mistress of the wardrobe hanged herself just before the ceremony. Taking this as a bad omen, she had a new wedding dress quickly made to ward off bad luck.
The wedding day got off to a bad start when an officer fell from his horse with sunstroke and the gates to the palace refused to open for the couple. The prince’s best man is supposed to have accidentally shot himself in the head after the ceremony. The man in charge of the train station (from which the newlyweds were supposed to leave) fell under a train.
The prince’s father decided that enough was enough and ordered the wedding party back to the palace. During the procession home, a noble fell from his horse and under the carriage of the bride and groom where he was killed.
1. Cleopatra And Alexander
Royalty often had the task of putting on an impressive display. In the ancient world, a wedding served as a grand opportunity to proclaim the strength and affluence of a kingdom. For Philip of Macedon, it was also a chance to prove to his sophisticated Greek neighbors that he was equally cultured.
Macedonians were often seen as ruthless barbarians by many Greeks, especially because of their history of assassinating their rulers. Philip wanted to demonstrate how much his kingdom had evolved by organizing a lavish wedding for his daughter Cleopatra and King Alexander of Epirus.
Macedon’s neighbors were deeply impressed by the grandeur of the event, and the highlight of the wedding was meant to be Philip’s grand entrance at the competitions after the ceremony. He was set to enter the theater alone, with his image carried among divine representations.
The cheers of the crowd quickly turned to silence when an assassin struck, fatally stabbing Philip. This tragic assassination undermined his attempt to show that Macedon had moved beyond the violent tradition of regicide.
