Love Ruins the Realm: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''"Rulers make bad lovers''
''You better put your kingdom up for sale"''|'''[[Fleetwood Mac]]''', "Gold Dust Woman"}}
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# Their significant other starts to exert an influence on government policy, and causes problems [[God Save Us From the Queen|either deliberately or through simple selfishness]].
[[Rebellious Princess
{{examples}}
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* Guinevere and Lancelot of the [[King Arthur|Arthur mythos]] are another classic example.
** And though it wasn't exactly love ''per se'' - Arthur and his Half-Sister Morguese counts since it produced [[Bad Seed|Mordred]].
* As are [[Antony and Cleopatra]] from the [[Shakespeare
** Which is based on [[Truth in Television|historical records of just how bad this relationship was]].
** Caesar - Cleo's previous paramour was accused of letting his love for the Egyptian Queen cloud his judgement.
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** Ironically, Henry's actions in that case were an attempt to avoid this trope. Apparently, he did love Katherine but didn't think she could give him a son. He believed that his duty to England to provide an heir was more important than his duty to Katherine.
** And for all that, [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|poor Anne got her head cut off anyway.]]
*** Because by ''that'' point, Henry realized she couldn't give him a son, either, and had already begun courting Jane
* Procopius (perhaps an [[Unreliable Narrator]]) claims that Justinian's marriage to the notorious actress/prostitute Theodora brought about the ruination of the Roman/Byzantine empire.
** Others opine that Theodora and Justinian were a competent power couple.
*** Judging from her famous quote during a particularly nasty chariot race riot about staying and possibly dying as queen rather then running as beggars, she encouraged her husband to try to quell the riot - one could suggest she was the more competent (or at least the bolder) of the two.
* One source of [[Mary of Scotland|Mary, Queen of Scots]]' unpopularity as a ruler was her alleged tendency to get involved in numerous affairs (granted, her husband was known for being an abusive brute) that undermined her reputation, to the point where she was commonly referred to as a whore (via images of the Mermaid).
* Antony and Cleopatra, who probably deserve [[Trope Codifier]] status even though this is a very Truth-based trope. Interestingly, Antony didn't get in trouble for screwing
* Marie Antoinette, the poor girl, was and still is often accused of influencing her husband inappropriately and substantially.
* Eric XIV of Sweden (reigned 1560-1568) managed to upset large parts of the Swedish nobility, including his own brothers, during his reign because of his sometimes violent insanity and paranoia. His decision to marry his mistress Karin Månsdotter, the daughter of a common jailkeeper, became the final straw that made it possible for his brothers and other political opponents to dethrone him.
* For a while, it looked like this was going to happen with Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) and Robert Dudley. He was universally hated and was generally supposed to have murdered his wife; the Queen's intimate relationship with him scandalized Europe and damaged her reputation. If she had married him, Elizabeth might have had a hard time holding on to her crown. Eventually, she decided to become the "Virgin Queen" and renounce marriage, but she kept her "sweet Robin" close by until he died in 1588.
* Edward VIII of England was on the verge of causing this. Subverted in that his abdication got rid of a King with fascist sympathies, and put on the throne King George VI, who - with the help of his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - ''listened'' to [[Winston Churchill]] and guided England through [[World War II]]. [[Subverted Trope|Love Saves]]
** Although ironically - despite what ''[[The King's Speech]]'' tells us - Churchill didn't actually ''want'' the succession to be diverted. (Just Because, as far as is possible to see - he thought at the time it made a nonsense of the idea of monarchy. And George was also extremely - some might say, as he announced it as king before parliament had agreed on it - inappropriately eager to celebrate the achievements of Neville Chamberlain's peace treaty...)
* Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville because of love instead of political reasons. This got him a lot of enemies within his own court, as she was not only completely inappropriate (was the widow of a Lancastrian soldier with two children), but she also did things like securing all the best jobs and marriages for her relatives. This helped cause the Earl of Warwick to fall out with Edward and try to overthrow him, as he felt that Edward wasn't following his advice.
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