History Main / TheBlueBeard

* A variation of this tale appears in many versions of "The Robber Bridegroom" by the Grimm Brothers and others. In this story, the murderer is a member of a gang of cannibalistic bandits. After he invites the potential fiancée to his house, she gets some help from the bandits' servant, an old woman who hides her behind a cask. The would-be bride then witnesses another woman being murdered and devoured, and later, the old woman helps her escape on the condition that she brings her along (presumably because the bride knows the way and the old woman doesn't). The bride brings along a ring from the victim of the murder she witnessed, and on the day of the wedding, exposes her fiancé with the evidence. The story ends with the Bridegroom and the other bandits executed.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

Named after the [[Literature/{{Bluebeard}} famous fairy tale]]. Not to be confused with YouGottaHaveBlueHair, although the TropeNamer was an example of that. Not to be confused with the character from WesternAnimation/{{Felidae}} either. Nor with CaptainColorbeard; Bluebeards usually aren't pirates.

* One of the killers whose statue is displayed in ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "The New Exhibit."

* The freeware Doom-engine game Judith, in which a series of flashbacks of a wife finding a secret room in her husband's castle with a torture victim inside and the subsequent mercy-killing of the victim leads to the wife encountering a particularly haunting version of this trope.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': Don Corneo is a crime boss who regularly holds auditions for girls to marry, but whenever he gets bored with them, he drops them down a TrapDoor to feed a monster.

* Zanoba from ''LightNovel/MushokuTensei'' ripped off his wife's head because she looked like a doll.

* In the British ''Thriller'' series, the episode, "A Coffin for the Bride," revolves around a man who marries older, unattractive, but wealthy, women and kills them after the honeymoon. After falling in love with a young woman, played by Helen Mirren, he wants to go straight, but can't resist a new target, a haggard loudmouth with an annoying laugh. This time, however, his wife seems suspicious early on and mysteriously disappears before he can go through with killing her. The man ends up arrested for her murder, ironically for a crime he didn't commit. In jail, he seems to suspect that the younger girl killed the final wife and, when she visits him in prison, tries to get her to confess. The truth is a bit more complicated: [[spoiler: She was the sister of one of the man's previous victims and wanted him brought to justice. When he points out the truth will come out when his wife's body is found, she laughs a very familiar laugh, revealing that the final wife wasn't a real person, but her in disguise all along. And, yes, Mirren plays both "characters."]]

* ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'': The Demiurge Hastet Om originally had only one wife, a beautiful girl from a poor world named Nadia. While he did rape her and refuse to allow her any freedom, he never threatened to kill her. However, as she got older and her beauty began to fade, he took a new wife for every gray hair on her head. He did absolutely horrific things to him, until Nadia had enough and murdered him in his sleep, stole his god-power, and buried him in the garden. [[spoiler:Three days later, she heard him demanding more wives. He sprouted into a horrific tree that requires the blood of young maidens to survive. The tree produces fruits that [[FountainOfYouth de-age anyone who eats them]]; Nadia has been using them to live forever, even though this is an extremely inefficient form of immortality. Allison calls Nadia out for being a coward too weak to find another way and destroys the tree herself]].

* It is revealed in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' that Prince Humperdinck's purpose in marrying Buttercup is to murder her after the wedding and frame the rival kingdom for it to start a war.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': General Tarquin has had ''nine'' wives: while we know that he simply divorced the first one ([[spoiler:Elan and Nale's mother]]), the ninth recently died "of mysterious circumstances". It also turns out that some of his former wives were convinced to marry him through [[ColdBloodedTorture brutal torture]]. It's also distinctly possible that [[spoiler:when he said he was going out of the way to keep from having children (he didn't want an heir), he meant he was killing his wives for getting pregnant.]] Subverted in the case of Tarquin's ninth wife, who really ''did'' die due to mysterious circumstances. [[spoiler:She had conceived a child with a descendant of a certain black dragon whose family line Vaarsuvius cast the infamous Familicide spell upon]]. Furthermore, WordOfGod is that [[spoiler:Julio was rescuing Tarquin's wives at their weddings. Due to the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality, he only rescued the wives who didn't want to marry Tarquin. At least some of them did genuinely love Tarquin, no torture required]].

* Henry VIII of England, who had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered a Bluebeard, although he only had ''two'' of said wives executed: Anne Boleyn (#2), and Catherine Howard (#4). [[note]]Both were convicted of adultery - falsely, in Anne's case. Henry was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]]; Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate. [[ValuesDissonance At the time adultery on the part of the monarch's wife was considered treason]], since it could result in a child not of royal blood being falsely perceived as the king's heir. Which meant that charges of adultery, whether real or completely trumped-up, were an easy way for an unscrupulous king to get rid of an unwanted queen.[[/note]] Jane Seymour (#3) [[DeathByIrony died of puerperal fever after producing a male heir]]. Another two of his marriages were annulled without a wife being killed - to Catherine of Aragon (#1) and Anne of Cleves (#4) - and Catherine Parr (#6) outlived him by nearly two years. His bloody reputation in this area comes from how many ''other'' people he had executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives, as well as popular rumor attributing Catherine of Aragon's death to foul play by either him or Anne Boleyn.[[note]]Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.[[/note]]

* In the British ''Thriller'' series, the episode, "A Coffin for the Bride," revolves around a man who marries older, unattractive, but wealthy, women and kills them after the honeymoon. After falling in love with a young woman, played by Helen Mirren, he wants to go straight, but can't resist a new target, a haggard loudmouth. This time, however, his wife seems suspicious early on and mysteriously disappears. The man ends up arrested for her murder, ironically for a crime he didn't commit. In jail, he seems to suspect that the younger girl killed the final wife and, when she visits him in prison, tries to get her to confess. The truth is a bit more complicated: [[spoiler: She was the sister of one of the man's previous victims and wanted him brought to justice. When he points out the truth will come out when his wife's body is found, she laughs a very familiar laugh, revealing that the final wife wasn't a real person, but her in disguise all along. And, yes, Mirren plays both "characters."]]

** Vernon wrote another variation on the story, "Bluebeard's Wife." In this one, Althea, the newest wife, is relieved to get away from her overbearing family and doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize her new situation. She interprets Bluebeard's order to avoid the room as being similar to her own desire for solitude and associates it with her own father's study which she and her sisters were also not allowed into. She puts the key Bluebeard gives her OutOfSightOutOfMind and lives out a quiet and largely platonic marriage with him. On his deathbed, he begs her to burn down the house when he dies, but it's her home, so she doesn't - and that's when everything finally comes out.

Named after the [[Literature/{{Bluebeard}} famous fairy tale]]. Not to be confused with RedRightHand, although the TropeNamer's beard fell under that category. Not to be confused with the character from WesternAnimation/{{Felidae}} either. Nor with CaptainColorbeard; Bluebeards usually aren't pirates.

* Henry VIII of England, who had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered a Bluebeard, although he only had ''two'' of said wives executed: Anne Boleyn (#2), and Catherine Howard (#4). [[labelnote:*]]Both were convicted of adultery - falsely, in Anne's case. Henry was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]]; Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate.[[/labelnote]] Jane Seymour (#3) [[DeathByIrony died of puerperal fever after producing a male heir]]. Another two of his marriages were annulled without a wife being killed - to Catherine of Aragon (#1) and Anne of Cleves (#4) - and Catherine Parr (#6) outlived him by nearly two years. His bloody reputation in this area comes from how many ''other'' people he had executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives, as well as popular rumor attributing Catherine of Aragon's death to foul play by either him or Anne Boleyn.[[labelnote:**]]Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.[[/labelnote]]

* An Israeli man named [[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/man-who-killed-two-wives-receives-two-life-sentences-1.5414936 Shimon Cooper]] received two cumulative life sentences for murdering two of his three wives. In 1994, Cooper murdered his first wife, Orit, and staged the scene to make it look like suicide, all so he could marry his mistress and move to a larger house. The marriage to his second wife lasted less than five years, after which he met and married a third woman, Jenny. Eventually he acquired a new mistress, an anesthesiologist, and in 2009 tricked her into giving him drugs which he used to murder Jenny, faking her death by suicide as he had done 15 years before. The case against him was initially closed for lack of evidence, but was reopened as a result of an exposé conducted by a popular investigative TV program, which led to his arrest and conviction.[[/folder]]

* This almost happened in ''Disney/{{Frozen}}''. [[spoiler:Prince Hans had been planning to marry the newly-crowned Queen Elsa, then kill her and taking her throne for himself. He changes his target to her younger and naïve sister Anna, opting to dispose of both women once he's secured]].

* A popular strategy in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'' is "Bluebearding" - marrying women for their dowries and high birth, assassinating them, and repeating the process. Despite the otherwise [[ArtificialBrilliance good AI]], the VillainProtagonist will [[KarmaHoudini suffer no repercussions for his actions]], unlike most of the evil strategies in the game.

* Henry VIII, who had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered to be a Bluebeard though "only" two of said wives (second wife Anne Boleyn and fifth wife Catherine Howard) got the axe, both convicted of adultery.[[labelnote:*]]Although the king was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]], and Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. It wasn't producing a male heir that was the problem; it was producing a ''legitimate'' male heir who would actually be able to become king. This led to some zany schemes like planning to marry his illegitimate son to his legitimate daughter. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate.[[/labelnote]] Two of the others (first wife Catherine of Aragon and fourth wife Anne of Cleves) were annulled, the third (Jane Seymour) [[DeathByIrony died of puerperal fever after producing a male heir]], and the last one (Catherine Parr) survived him by nearly two years. His reputation in this area is augmented by how he had so many ''other'' people executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives. In that time period, popular rumor attributed Catherine of Aragon's death to poisoning or other foul play by either him or Anne.[[labelnote:**]]Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.[[/labelnote]]

* Henry VIII, who had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wives_of_Henry_VIII six wives,]] is often considered to be a Bluebeard though "only" two of said wives (second wife Anne Boleyn and fifth wife Catherine Howard) got the axe, both convicted of adultery.[[labelnote:*]]Although the king was [[DoubleStandard no stranger to adultery himself]], and Anne's real "crime" was failing to give him a son. It wasn't producing a male heir that was the problem; it was producing a ''legitimate'' male heir who would actually be able to become king. This led to some zany schemes like planning to marry his illegitimate son to his legitimate daughter. Catherine Howard almost certainly ''was'' guilty, though -- not that this excuses her unhappy fate.[[/labelnote]] Two of the others (first wife Catherine of Aragon and fourth wife Anne of Cleves) were divorced, the third (Jane Seymour) [[DeathByIrony died of natural causes after producing a male heir]], and the last one (Catherine Parr) survived him. His reputation in this area is augmented by how he had so many ''other'' people executed over the political and religious complications involved in his HighTurnoverRate of wives. In that time period, Catherine of Aragon's death was attributed to him as well, with rumors of him or Anne Boleyn poisoning her, or his imprisoning her in a decrepit castle undermining her health, or even that she died of a broken heart. (Modern historians attribute her death to heart cancer.)

* ''VideoGame/DivinityDragonCommander'': The ''player'' can become this trope if you marry one princess and opt to sacrifice her to Corvus, the captive demon that powers your airship. It is very possible to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kech9d3VSE kill all four available brides]], with the crew quickly piecing together you are responsible and [[EveryoneHasStandards act appropriately disgusted with your actions]]. While nobody turns on you despite being a [[MoralEventHorizon prolific wife murderer]], you aren't exactly a KarmaHoudini either since your mentor forbids you from marrying anyone else until the crisis is settled. In the end, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Corvus is the true BigBad of the game, and you have inadvertently empowered him with the sacrifices making this a very poor decision in hindsight.]]

* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Peterson Drew Peterson]] is a former cop from Illinois who has been married four times to increasingly younger women, to the point that his fourth wife, whom he began dating when she was ''17'', was 30 years his junior. He cheated on each wife with the woman who would become the next and physically abused all of them--his second wife Vicki is certain that he cut the brake lines on her car in an attempt to kill her. In 2012, he was convicted of the murder of his 3rd wife Kathleen and is the sole suspect in the 2007 disappearance and likely murder of his 4th, Stacy. Ironically, had Stacy not vanished, cops would probably have never taken a second look at Kathleen's death, which had heretofore been believed to be an [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident accidental drowning]].

* H. H. Holmes, born Henry Mudgett was one of America's first known and prolific serial killers and was even called "The Modern Bluebeard" by the press of the day. Curiously, however, Holmes was actually an inversion of the trope because despite being in the exact situations as his victims, he never murdered any of the three women he properly married. Instead, he would kill his secretaries, female lodgers and random wealthy-seeming women he would lure back to his massive Chicago home (which had been specifically engineered as a massive death trap/torture dungeon/mad science lab).