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{{trope}}
[[File:Pompadour.jpg|frame|When a [[Hot Consort]] just isn't enough.]]
Basically the step up from [[Your Cheating Heart]], but not up there with a concubine. It's a girlfriend for an already married man. Sometimes it's public, but just as often as not.
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The reasons can vary. Often the husband just doesn't care enough for his wife, especially if there was an [[Arranged Marriage]]. Sometimes it's actually expected in a culture (even if not actually said). Sometimes the wife can even drive the husband to this, but just as often she can be a kind woman, or even a [[Hot Consort]].
Sometimes the mistress will be happy with her position, but sometimes she will want the husband to leave his wife and marry her. Sometimes the latter could even lead to trying to [[Murder the Hypotenuse|outright get rid of the wife]]. Needless to say, if the wife wasn't aware of her existence and finds out about her,
Crime Fiction stories often involve this, as it conveniently gives everyone involved a motive for murdering at least ''one'' of the triangle. The more mistresses, the more potential red herrings/victims.
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Compare [[The Unfair Sex]], [[Oops, I Forgot I Was Married]] (if the mistress does not know about the other's family), [[Dark Mistress]] (who is ''not'' an evil version of this, despite the name).
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* This trope is referenced in ''[[Ranma
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* ''[[Rosario
* There are a LOT of historical examples, because European aristocratic marriages were almost always purely political -- it was generally accepted that the husband and ([[Double Standard|though less tolerated]]) wife would take lovers to provide the emotional fulfillment they would not be getting from their marriage. It was usually considered bad form to be public about it, but not always -- in some countries such as France [[The Mistress]] was even something of a semi-official position. (Among other things, this made it easier to keep tabs on any illegitimate children that might one day contest for the throne...)▼
* The picture is of Madame de Pompadour, one of the mistresses of [[Useful Notes/L Etat Cest Moi|Louis XV]], who was featured in ''[[Le Chevalier Deon]]''. She also appeared in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Girl In The Fireplace".▼
** The Doctor even mentions that she and the queen were good friends.▼
{{quote| '''The Doctor''': "France! It's another planet!"}}▼
** Queen Marie wasn't happy with her husbands affairs at all, since she was a devout Catholic. She merely preferred the well-behaved and properly deferential Pompadour over her downright arrogant predecessors. Marie Therese, on the other hand, was openly dissappointed when her husband exchanged Louise de la Valliere for de Montespan.▼
** Madame DuBarry was another mistress late in his life, who was an [[Historical Villain Upgrade|initial antagonist]] in ''[[Rose of Versailles]]''.▼
* Looking through the history of any European country, the amount of mistresses the royalty and nobility kept on hand is staggering. Special mention to [[wikipedia:Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV of France]], who was still sleeping around at 70, and [[wikipedia:Augustus II|Augustus II of Poland]], who ended up with ''350 '' children, of which ''one'' was legitimate.▼
* [[The House of Tudor|King Henry VIII]] had a confirmed two mistresses, Elizabeth Blount and Mary Boleyn (yes, sister to Anne Boleyn). He ''may'' have had other mistresses and considering his personality that wouldn't be surprising but beyond Elizabeth and Mary it is purely speculation. ▼
* The most famous example of a queen openly keeping lovers is [[Catherine the Great]]. She also rewarded her lovers handsomely (one of them briefly became king of Poland). Notably she started ''before'' she had her husband overthrown (and possibly murdered) and kept it up afterward. (This is the likely point of the rumor that she died, um.. 'ahorse' -- it was a joke about her insatiable appetite.)▼
** As well as her penchant for picking her lovers from her horse guards.▼
* A Swedish example: Frederik I's mistress Hedvig Taube who (like many others) acquired a large fortune from her liaison with the king.▼
* [[The House of Stuart|King Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland]] was known as "the Merry Monarch" for his free-living lifestyle, and is famous for having twelve acknowledged illegitimate children by seven mistresses -- with no less than five of the children being by Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine -- and no children at all by his legitimate wife, Catherine of Braganza. Many of Charles' bastards have prominent descendants, with one of them (Diana Spencer) marrying the Prince of Wales (making Princess Di), and thus probably finally getting one of Charles' descendants in line for the throne.▼
* [[The House of Hanover|William IV of the United Kingdom]] was also famous for a large number of illegitimate children (as, frankly, were many of the sons of George III, much to their devout and [[Happily Married]] father's disgust--at least when he was lucid enough to be disgusted). He had only two daughters by his wife, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, but he had ten by his mistress, the actress Dorothea Jordan. Both of his legitimate daughters died, leaving the throne to his niece [[Queen Vicky|Victoria]]. And of course, William's surviving children had important descendants, the most famous of whom is current [[The Men of Downing Street|Prime Minister]] [[David Cameron]].▼
* [[Marion Davies]], longtime girlfriend of publishing magnate [[William Randolph Hearst]]. Hearst remained married to his wife Millicent until his death, despite having been carrying on with Davies for the last 34 years.▼
== [[Film]] ==
* Lola's father has one in ''[[
* Helen's husband Charles has one in ''[[Diary of a Mad Black Woman]]'' , and she even had two children with him(meanwhile Helen had two miscarriages).
* The book in ''[[Down With Love]]'' causes even mistresses to not cooperate with men anymore.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Tom's relationship with Myrtle in ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''.
* In Katherine Kerr's ''Devvery'' series, Rhodry takes Jill as a
* One interpretation of the poem "The Rival" by [[Sylvia Plath]] (in ''[[Ariel]]'') is that the subject is an [[Expy]] of the mistress of Plath's husband.
* ''[[
* The position is [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[Dune]]'' wherein Paul Atreides considers the woman who is technically his mistress as his true wife, and never consummates his official (and political) marriage with his actual wife.
* Petra Cotes in ''[[One Hundred Years of Solitude]]'', doubling as one of the three [[Hooker
* In ''[[Guilty Wives]]'', Winnie is revealed to have been the mistress of {{spoiler|the President of France}} for some time before the action of the novel begins.
== [[Live
* Spoofed in ''[[Designing Women]]'', when they get a mistress to stop seeing a married man, but the wife was angry, because she knew about the affair and was having her own.
* In the first time in ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' where Sam leapt into a woman, he was there to save "his" roommate from committing suicide over an relationship with her boss - she thought her boss would leave his wife for her, but the wife made it clear to her that she tolerated his "indiscretions" but they would never break up (and she was a former mistress of the boss herself, having broken up his previous marriage).
* An extremely rare [[Gender Flip]] version appears on ''[[The Office]]'', during the plotline where Michael thinks his girlfriend Donna is cheating on him but it turns out that the "other man" is her husband: "''I'M'' the mistress?"
* ''[[
* ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'' loves this trope along with general adultery.
* ''[[The Sopranos]]'': Almost every made guy has a "gumar" on top of their wives who they won't divorce for their Catholic beliefs. For the main character, it becomes a major plot device when one of his mistresses actually contacts his home pushing his wife to call it quits, albeit temporarily.
** "Comare." Literally "godmother" in Sicilian dialect, but slang for mistress.
* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' wouldn't really be ''Desperate Housewives'' if it didn't have at least one mistress per season.
* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Shindig," Atherton Wing wanted Inara for one of these. Mal [[Fumbling the Gauntlet|objected]], leading to a [[Duel to
== [[
* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': [[Villains|De Guiche]] wants to bully heroine Roxane into this. She will have none of it.▼
▲* This trope is referenced in ''[[Ranma One Half]]''. One of the things [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold|Ranma]] does to try and get Ukyo [[Please Dump Me|to dump him]] is to tell her he's going to go spend the night with his mistress. Made funnier when he enters Akane's room and tries to convince her to go along with it. [[Tsundere|She]] really doesn't take it well.
▲* ''[[Rosario to Vampire]]'' makes use of it overtly; in the case of those seeking Tsukune's love only one has expressed real interest in marriage, with the others either outright saying they want to be something else to him, or simply showing no great interest either way. However more subtly {{spoiler|when we finally discover the full picture of the Shuzen family, we learn that not only was [[Disappeared Dad|Issa]] casually polygamous, but it is implied that among his partners, Moka's mother [[Lady of War|Akasha]] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Bloodriver]] is Issa Shuzen's mistress rather then his wife. This despite also being a Shinso vampire and one of the Three Dark Lords, who control/watch over Japan.}}
▲* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: [[Villains|De Guiche]] wants to bully heroine Roxane into this. She will have none of it.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* King's Mistress is one of the endings in some of the ''[[Princess Maker]]'' games.
** Not only that, the second game as a possible ending with the girl as the lover of a local landlord as well. Said landlord [[Chekhov's Gun|can potentially show up earlier]] and
** In said second game the King of the Land also has a royal concubine, and your daughter can speak to her. She seems to be a pretty but deadly bored woman rather disenchanted with the life of the court, but unwilling to leave it due to the benefits it still gives her.
* ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Fire Emblem Blazing Sword]]'': King Desmond of Bern has a son (Zephiel) by the queen (Helenne), and a daughter (Guinevere) by his [[No Name Given|unnamed]] mistress. His illegitimate family lives in the palace, while his official one lives in an old out-of-the way manor. It's explained in the prequel ''Sword of Seals'' that {{spoiler|said mistress was actually the King's old girlfriend, whom the King couldn't marry due to being forced in an [[Arranged Marriage]] with the Queen..}} Needless to say, [[Big Screwed-Up Family|it does
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', {{spoiler|if you make Alistair king and cannot/will not make yourself queen and are in a romance, and provided you "hardened" him earlier, you may become his mistress. Not just a mistress, though, you may be his adviser, as well.}}
* In ''[[
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* There are a
▲* The picture is of Madame de Pompadour, one of the mistresses of [[
▲** The Doctor even mentions that she and the queen were good friends.
▲** Queen Marie wasn't happy with her husbands affairs at all, since she was a devout Catholic. She merely preferred the well-behaved and properly deferential Pompadour over her downright arrogant predecessors. Marie Therese, on the other hand, was openly
▲** Madame DuBarry was another mistress late in his life, who was an [[Historical Villain Upgrade|initial antagonist]] in ''[[Rose of Versailles]]''.
▲* Looking through the history of any European country, the amount of mistresses the royalty and nobility kept on hand is staggering. Special mention to [[wikipedia:Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV of France]], who was still sleeping around at 70, and [[wikipedia:Augustus II|Augustus II of Poland]], who ended up with ''350 '' children, of which ''one'' was legitimate.
▲* [[The House of Tudor|King Henry VIII]] had a confirmed two mistresses, Elizabeth Blount and Mary Boleyn (yes, sister to Anne Boleyn). He ''may'' have had other mistresses and considering his personality that wouldn't be surprising but beyond Elizabeth and Mary it is purely speculation.
▲* The most famous example of a queen openly keeping lovers is [[Catherine the Great]]. She also rewarded her lovers handsomely (one of them briefly became king of Poland). Notably she started ''before'' she had her husband overthrown (and possibly murdered) and kept it up afterward. (This is the likely point of the rumor that she died, um.. 'ahorse' -- it was a joke about her insatiable appetite.)
▲** As well as her penchant for picking her lovers from her horse guards.
▲* A Swedish example: Frederik I's mistress Hedvig Taube who (like many others) acquired a large fortune from her liaison with the king.
▲* [[The House of Stuart|King Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland]] was known as "the Merry Monarch" for his free-living lifestyle, and is famous for having twelve acknowledged illegitimate children by seven
▲* [[The House of Hanover|William IV of the United Kingdom]] was also famous for a large number of illegitimate children (as, frankly, were many of the sons of George III, much to their devout and [[Happily Married]] father's
▲* [[Marion Davies]], longtime girlfriend of publishing magnate [[William Randolph Hearst]]. Hearst remained married to his wife Millicent until his death, despite having been carrying on with Davies for the last
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Marriage Tropes]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
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