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Love Ruins the Realm (view source)

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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Rulers make bad lovers''<br />
''You better put your kingdom up for sale"''|'''[[Fleetwood Mac (Music)|Fleetwood Mac]]''', "Gold Dust Woman"}}
 
A monarch's romantic choices are directly linked to everything going to hell thereafter. Usually, this is for one of three reasons:
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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* The above [[Sailor Moon]] example is noted in [[White Devil of the Moon (Fanfic)|White Devil of the Moon]]. [[Lyrical Nanoha|Nanoha]], who in this fic is the reincarnation of Princess Serenity, [[Calling the Old Man Out|calls out Queen Serenity]] for allowing her daughter to do everything that she did, noting that in addition to the above consequences, the princess was placing herself in danger of coming to harm and sparking an international incident, and potentially allowing Endymion to seize control of the Moon Kingdom through marriage.
* In [[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons (Fanfic)|Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]], Ronan's (albeit twisted) love for Sakura results in {{spoiler|Madara injecting Sakura with a serum that puts her into a coma and telling him to find the head of the Kibusi Corporation}}. Ronan leaves his kingdom to save her, {{spoiler|and when he kills the head of the Kibusi Corporation for the antidote, he finds out that it turns Sakura Christian. Returning home, he finds out that Sasuke, under the [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness]] (which also employs Madara and the Kibusi Corp president) has taken over Konohagakure, resulting in a long battle to expel them}}.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* Dido and Aeneas in ''[[The Aeneid (Literature)|The Aeneid]]''. According to Virgil, their short fling caused, much later, the [[Punic Wars]]. Let this be a lesson to all Good Romans to never put love before duty.
* 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]].
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** Caesar - Cleo's previous paramour was accused of letting his love for the Egyptian Queen cloud his judgement.
* Even older - bad policy (and subsequent Divine Wrath) in the Old Testament is often blamed on the influence of foreign wives.
** It wasn't just the foreigners, although they ''are'' the most commonly-described - King David's adultery with Bathsheba nearly ruined the rest of his life, although this is attributed in [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] to God's punishment rather than a natural consequence.
** It's made explicit with David's son, Solomon. All his famous wisdom didn't do him much good when he started thinking with his other head and taking wives from other kingdoms who swayed his heart away from God, thus setting his kingdom up to fall.
* {{spoiler|Cersei and Jaime}} of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. Later, the third book sees {{spoiler|Robb Stark and Jeyne Westerling}}; of course, the realm has already gone to hell by that point, but when the whole fiasco has played out, it's worth a couple of circles. Does ''not'' apply with the oft-rumored relationship between Queen Naerys and Aemon the Dragonknight, presumably because Aemon the Dragonknight is an actual heroic figure [[Crapsack World|for a change]].
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** And ultimately revealed that {{spoiler|[[Magnificent Bastard|Littlefinger]] engineered the War of Five Kings with one of the goals being the exile/death of Ned Stark so that he could make a play for Catelyn Stark, who he'd loved as a young man. Boy, did ''that'' go wrong.}}
** Ser Barristan finds himself pondering all the various kings and princes who acted on their own feelings and unwittingly brought misery on the realm. He also reveals The Mad King would have rather wed {{spoiler|Joanna Lannister}} than his sister Rhaella. The implication being Aery's subsequent madness served to fuel his envy of his childhood friend {{spoiler|Tywin Lannister}} to the point of hatred.
* The nobles (and, perhaps more importantly, his wife) in [[Christopher Marlowe (Creator)|Christopher Marlowe]]'s play ''Edward II'' claim this as their reason for having the king offed: he was spending too much time with his... um... friend Piers Gaveston, a mere commoner.
* Subverted in ''[[Kushiel's Legacy (Literature)|Kushiels Legacy]]''. Moirin's relationship with {{spoiler|Jehanne was said to make her a better ruler. Amusingly enough, it was the King (Jehanne's husband) who said this.}}
* Phaedra's love for Ulfin in ''[[The Cup of the World]]''. Made even worse when it's revealed that {{spoiler|her love is the product of a faustian bargain}}.
 
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* This is the reason of why [[Mortal Kombat|Liu Kang]] refuses to become Edenia's king, alongside Kitana, in his ending in [[Mortal Kombat 4 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat 4]].
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One episode of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' had the Cutie Mark Crusaders discover their concocted love potion was a poisonous variant, which caused the collapse of a kingdom at some point in the past because of "too enamored to do crap" version of this trope.
 
== [[Truth in Television]] ==
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