Do you think the princess is a great party? Beautiful, wealthy and with great connections? None of these things! True blue blood virgins could get under their skin pretty well. And the relationship with them could even cost you with your life.
As always, all positions in the TOP10 ranking are based on the articles we publish. This time we decided to show the dark side of life with princesses. You can find more facts about the women who changed the course of history HERE.
When you marry a princess you would have to remember that maybe she…
10. Make you wait long for your wedding night
Such things only after marriage. And not right away! Illustration from the 13th-century Maciejowski's Bible.
It was to be expected that sex before marriage was out of the question. But also on the wedding night there was no chance for him. The 16th-century custom did not allow the bride (especially the new queen) to receive Holy Communion on the same day and to give virtue to her husband. Only after another day of feasting, the newlyweds could meet in bed. Exhausted and fed up, they had to wait for the bishop to bless the sending, then hear the coarse jokes of state dignitaries (read more about this).
9. Bring genetic diseases to the family
Marianna is a typical Habsburgian. Her parents are cousins, she married her own uncle, and gave her daughter for a wife to her brother ... Fragment of a painting by Diego Velázquez from 1652.
Incest and inbreeding - this is how you can summarize the marriage policy of many dynasties, especially the Habsburgs. Marriage of uncles and nieces was nothing special for them. Children who were born extremely weak suffered from this. Many of them died in childhood. Those who lived into adulthood were often physically and mentally retarded and suffered from infertility. But even such - like Maria Antonia Habsburg, whose father was both her mother's uncle and cousin - were a tasty morsel for all dynasts (read more on this).
8. Instruct you at every step
Virgo may be pretty, but what if talking to her is like a difficult lesson ...
Princess Helena of Orleans was mated with the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand. However, when the potential spouses met, they had considerable communication problems. Helena spoke only French, and the Archduke had a poor command of the language. He was always making lapses, which the Miss ruthlessly corrected . It felt like a test. Moreover, the choice of his wife from among the princesses was summed up as follows:"they are all children, seventeen or eighteen-year-olds, and one uglier than the other" (read more about this).
7. Beat you ... with one hand
In this painting by Franz Geyling from 1856, Ernest saves Cymbarka from a bear. In fact, it would rather be the other way around…
Cymbarka from the Czersk Piast line was famous for its beauty ... and extraordinary physical strength. This princess, who lived in the 15th-century Mazovia, was able to break horseshoes and hammer nails with her bare hands. She crushed the nuts in her hands so that oil oozed between her fingers. Fear would have caught up with her (read more on that).
6. Cost you a lot of money and effort
After many hardships, the Sobieski family bought their daughter-in-law with heavy money ... In this painting by Henri Gascar we can see her sitting next to Marysieńka.
The most difficult situation was for those who looked for princesses without a hereditary title. Jakub Sobieski, son of the elective king Jan III, found out about it. After numerous affronts at European courts, he courted a poor princess but related to the emperor. Even for that the Sobieski family had to pay dearly . Although the custom was for the spouses to contribute more or less equally, in the end the groom brought in a dowry four times higher than his bride (read more on this).
5. Don't smell like lilies of the valley
This princess was not one of the best smelling. Saint Kinga in the painting by Ferdynand Olesiński.
Saint Kinga, wife of Bolesław the Chaste, prince of Krakow and Sandomierz, like many princesses in 13th-century Central Europe, put her husband to numerous trials. Her births report that even in marriage she did not give up her virginity. She did not seem to attach much importance to beauty either, because "when she was praised for her beauty, she dirty her face and smeared it". And on top of that, she hardly washed at all:"she never took a bath or a bath, nor did she wash her face with any water except during communion or in great need" (read more on this topic).
4. Not to impress with beauty
It may not look bad in the image, but in reality…
A princess must be automatically statuesque beautiful? The King of Sweden, Erik XIV, found that this was not the case at all. While trying to marry the daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse, Krystyna, he heard from the local ambassador that the girl was very beautiful. Meanwhile, the truth was much worse. A certain Swedish knight had the opportunity to visit the court of the landgrave and see the not-so-pretty maid in person. According to his account, Krystyna had ugly smallpox residue on her face (read more about this).
3. Kill your mother
It may look inconspicuous, but for the authorities it is ready to kill!
When you have an imperious mother, marrying an ambitious and proud woman of her origin can end in a family tragedy. Galeazzo Maria Sforza found out about it. His wife, Princess Bona di Savoia, hated her mother-in-law, Bianca Maria Visconti. And when Bianka Maria suddenly died during a trip to the residence appointed by Galeazza, it was suspected that her daughter-in-law had poisoned her (read more about this).
2. Bring you death bad luck
It may look inconspicuous, but the corpse is thick around her…
Princess Ryksa, the daughter of the Polish king, Przemysł II, can safely be called our first femme fatale . Fate was weighing on her successive relationships. Men who wanted her hand died exceptionally quickly. She lost her first fiancé when she was 10 years old. She was widowed twice until the age of 19 . Only the last love of her life lived longer - maybe because the topic of the wedding between them never even appeared (read more on this topic).
1. To have a grave temper
A princess with a lot of temperament is the best choice? Not necessarily…
Princess Margaret of Habsburg, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I, was enthusiastically received by her husband, Prince Jan of Asturias. It was love at first sight. Jan was hard to break away from his wife for a moment. Three months after the wedding, his health began to decline. The medics suspected that the reason was excessive zeal in the performance of marital duties. Something was going on, because the boy died just six months after meeting Małgorzata for the first time (read more about it).