The Mistress: Difference between revisions

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, [[The Mistress]] is very likely to be killed at her hands, if the husband isn't the one to die that is.

* 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 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]].

* In Katherine Kerr's Devvery series, Rhodry takes Jill as a mistress -- he would have liked to marry her, but could not for political reasons. It's acknowledged that this is common among the nobility due to the proliferation of political marriages; and in many cases the jilted spouse doesn't particularly mind as long as you are tactful and discreet.

** 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 makie the girl his lover if she has high Charisma with low Morals -- it's not reccomended to just let her be, though, as her stats and overall rep will go lower.