Welcome. We all enjoy a good love story that ends with a happily ever after.
In honor of Valentine's Day, and as part of the Hearts Through History Hop, I'm sharing some fun stories about historic weddings. Some are happy, some are not so happy, but each is amusing in their own way.
Let’s
begin at the beginning.
The word wedding,
according to Women in the Middle Ages
by Frances and Joseph Gies, originated from the Old English word wed, which meant pledge and referred to the ring and money a groom gave
to his bride at the church door.
How
do I love thee? Let me beat it into you.
One notable historic proposal is William the Conqueror’s
proposal to Matilda of Flanders. He approached her father, Baldwin V about the
marriage and Baldwin readily agreed. When someone finally told Matilda about
it, she said “No.” Not a man to let little things like being a bastard or “no” stop
him, William rode to Flanders. He intercepted Matilda on the way to church,
pulled her from her horse and, according to some sources, beat her. Amazingly, after
this oh so romantic proposal, she agreed to marry him. Bruises heal, but a
diamond is forever.
Speaking
of diamonds.
The Krupp Diamond, weighing in at a whopping 33.19
carats, was purchased by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor in 1968. It was
her favorite ring and the most valuable one in her collection. The diamond was auctioned off in December of 2011 for over $8 million dollars.
If
anyone has just cause why these two people should not be married…
After the invention of the telegraph, distance became
no barrier to marriage and the first “on-line” weddings were performed. In 1876, William Storey was a telegraph
operator stationed at the remote Camp Grant in Arizona where there were no
ministers. His bride, Clara Choate lived in San Diego where there were plenty
of ministers to perform the wedding service.
Unfortunately, William could not get a leave of absence to travel to America’s
Finest City. His solution? Bring the bride to Camp Grant and have a minister in
San Diego marry them over the telegraph. The plan worked, with the minister
reading the vows which were transmitted by telegraph to the bride and groom who
wired back their responses. The wedding was legal and the technologically
advanced couple lived happily ever after.
Remembering
the big day or Photoshop the Bonaparte way.
Napoleon’s mother, Maria Letizia refused to attend
the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine due to her dislike of the future empress.
As a result, when Jacques-Louis David created his massive painting to
commemorate the day, he simply added the old gal in. Although not strictly a
wedding, a marriage did take place in the early hours of the coronation day.
Napoleon and Josephine had originally been married in a civil ceremony that was
not recognized by the Catholic Church, thus preventing her from being crowned
alongside Napoleon. To sidestep this problem, a second religious ceremony was
performed in the wee hours of the coronation day. My guess is, Napoleon’s
mother didn’t attend that ceremony either.
And
don’t forget, if at first you don’t succeed…
One can’t discuss historic weddings without
mentioning Henry VIII. The eternal optimist, he married six times but only two
of his wives were lucky enough to outlive him. His last wife, Catherine Parr
mourned her chubby hubby for only a few months before marrying Thomas Seymour,
the man she’d been forced to give up for the King. Thomas was her fourth
husband. Here’s to never giving up on
love!
Now that I've shared some fun historic wedding stories with you, please share some with me. Leave a comment below with your favorite historical "I do" and your email. I will do a drawing on 2/16/13 and one lucky commentor will win an ebook copy of my ancient Rome novella, Mask of the Gladiator. I look forward to learning about some new historic nuptials.
When you are done, don't forget to check out the rest of the hop participants and their great giveaways. Have a great Valentine's Day!
Hop Participants
- Random Bits of Fascination (Maria Grace)
- Pillings Writing Corner (David Pilling)
- Sally Smith O’Rourke
- Darcyholic Diversions (Barbara Tiller Cole)
- Faith, Hope and Cherry Tea
- Rosanne Lortz
- Sharon Lathan
- Debra Brown
- Heyerwood (Lauren Gilbert)
- Regina Jeffers
- Ginger Myrick
- Anna Belfrage
- Fall in love with history (Grace Elliot)
- Nancy Bilyeau
- Wendy Dunn
- E.M. Powell
- Georgie Lee
- The Riddle of Writing (Deborah Swift)
- Outtakes from a Historical Novelist (Kim Rendfeld)
- The heart of romance (Sherry Gloag)
- A day in the life of patootie (Lori Crane)
- Karen Aminadra
- Dunhaven Place (Heidi Ashworth)
- Stephanie Renee dos Santos
8 comments:
Thanks for the history lesson. Fun facts!
enjoyed the FuN! thanks for all the research =))
wow..somebody did a lot of research..thanks for sharing. I did learn a lot :)
I watched a documentary about Audubon (the bird guy) recently and he had quite a love story with his wife Lucy. They were in love, he got sick, she nursed him back to health, he asked for her hand in marriage, her father said no, he then went out in the world to prove himself, and finally won her hand. They had many trials and tribulations in life, but it sounds as if their love for one another remained strong till the end. It was lovely. :)
-Lisa (slapshinyhappy at yahoo dot com)
Nice post - I enjoyed it. Hope your next book goes well, it is worse when they get older and it's the sound of their favourite full volume teenage band whilst you are writing! Make the most of the Lego!
Very well written. :) Those are some fun facts I didn't know about before!
Thank you so much for linking up with the Aloha Friday Blog Hop!! I am following you via GFC!! Have a lovely week!! :)
Aloha,
Jean {What Jean Likes}
Thanks everyone for stopping by and participating in the hop. The lucky winner is Deborah Swift. I will be in touch. Thanks again everyone!
Newest follower here! I found you through the blog hop. You have a really cute blog, I can't wait to read more. You can find my blog at meandmr.com
-Melanie @meandmr.com
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