History PerfectlyArrangedMarriage / RealLife

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth Woodville, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III: Margaret because her son was the least-implausible Lancastrian claimant, Elizabeth because she (probably correctly) suspected her brother-in-law the King of having her sons (the Princes in the Tower) murdered. Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint and while they barely knew each other on their wedding day, they came to truly love each other within the first few years. It also helped that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day of her day and while Henry was a bit miserly, he was pious and generally good-hearted. Elizabeth was not a particularly politically active queen, but he trusted her and respected her opinion above anyone else. Unlike their son, who was a known womanizer even after marriage, historians have never found any evidence to suggest Henry was unfaithful to his wife at any point in time; his only rumored illegitimate child was born at least a decade before their marriage. Notably, when Elizabeth died in childbirth on her 37th birthday, Henry was so depressed that he became gravely ill. He allowed no one but his mother to come near him for weeks and weeks. He was young enough that he could have remarried and was urged by his advisors to do so, but could never bring himself to do it. When he briefly tried to humor the idea, his description of what he desired in a new wife was basically just "clone of Elizabeth". He passed away from tuberculosis only six years after she did.

*** George III's third son William IV was originally reluctant to make a political marriage, choosing instead to live unmarried for twenty years with an unsuitable Irish actress (by whom he had 10 children). However, after that relationship ended, he married the German princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meningen as a political match--and a financial one (he had been deeply in debt before the marriage). The marriage got off to a rocky start: William famously treated the wedding ceremony as a joke, offending the pious Adelaide. However, with time, the marriage proved to be a happy one; William does not appear to have strayed much if at all, and he treated her as a confidante and advisor as well as a beloved wife (much as his great-grandfather George II had treated his great-grandmother Caroline). He even began to take going to church somewhat seriously The British public noticed, and credited Adelaide for "taming" William (who had been somewhat unpopular as a prince because of his dissolute personal habits); this is why the capital of South Australia, founded in William's reign, was named "Adelaide". For her part, Adelaide was happy to treat her husband's illegitimate children almost as her own - especially the youngest ones, as none of her own children with William survived infancy. She also shared her husband's great affection for his niece and heiress presumptive Victoria; Victoria's mother's incessant snubs to Adelaide were the trigger for William's famous announcement that [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech his only mission in life was to live just long enough to allow Victoria to become Queen without a regency]]. (He just barely did, to Victoria's eternal gratitude.)

** Princess Mary of Teck (UsefulNotes/ElizabethII's paternal grandmother) was engaged to marry Prince Albert Victor, second-in-line to the throne and her second cousin (her mother was Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, daughter of the youngest surviving son of George III, Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and cousin of Queen Victoria), but he died of influenza six weeks into their engagement. Queen Victoria subsequently set up Mary with the new second-in-line, Albert's shy younger brother George (the future King George V), and the couple were soon pressured into an engagement by their families. Nonetheless, they quickly fell in love and remained devoted to each other throughout their lives. Unlike his father, he never had mistresses and always wrote to her when he was away.

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III: Henry's because he was the least-implausible Lancastrian claimant, Elizabeth's because she (probably correctly) suspected her uncle-in-law the King of having her sons (the Princes in the Tower) murdered. Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint and while they barely knew each other on their wedding day, they came to truly love each other within the first few years. It also helped that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day of her day and while Henry was a bit miserly, he was pious and generally good-hearted. Elizabeth was not a particularly politically active queen, but he trusted her and respected her opinion above anyone else. Unlike their son, who was a known womanizer even after marriage, historians have never found any evidence to suggest Henry was unfaithful to his wife at any point in time; his only rumored illegitimate child was born at least a decade before their marriage. Notably, when Elizabeth died in childbirth on her 37th birthday, Henry was so depressed that he became gravely ill. He allowed no one but his mother to come near him for weeks and weeks. He was young enough that he could have remarried and was urged by his advisors to do so, but could never bring himself to do it. When he briefly tried to humor the idea, his description of what he desired in a new wife was basically just "clone of Elizabeth". He passed away from tuberculosis only six years after she did.

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III. Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint and while they barely knew each other on their wedding day, they came to truly love each other within the first few years. It also helped that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day of her day and while Henry was a bit miserly, he was pious and generally good-hearted. Elizabeth was not a particularly politically active queen, but he trusted her and respected her opinion above anyone else. Unlike their son, who was a known womanizer even after marriage, historians have never found any evidence to suggest Henry was unfaithful to his wife at any point in time; his only rumored illegitimate child was born at least a decade before their marriage. Notably, when Elizabeth died in childbirth on her 37th birthday, Henry was so depressed that he became gravely ill. He allowed no one but his mother to come near him for weeks and weeks. He was young enough that he could have remarried and was urged by his advisors to do so, but could never bring himself to do it. When he briefly tried to humor the idea, his description of what he desired in a new wife was basically just "clone of Elizabeth". He passed away from tuberculosis only six years after she did.

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III. Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint and while they barely knew each other on their wedding day, they came to truly love each other within the first few years. It also helped that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day of her day and while Henry was a bit miserly, he was pious and generally good-hearted. Elizabeth was not a particularly politically active queen, but he trusted her and respected her opinion above anyone else. Unlike their son, who was a known womanizer even after marriage, historians have never found any evidence to suggest Henry was unfaithful to his wife at any point in time; his only rumored illegitimate child was born at least a decade before their marriage. Notably, when Elizabeth died in childbirth on her 37th birthday, Henry was so depressed that he became gravely ill. He allowed no one but his mother to come near him for weeks and weeks. He was young enough that he could have remarried and was urged by his advisors to do so, but could never bring himself to do it. He passed away from tuberculosis only six years after she did.

*** George III's third son William IV was originally reluctant to make a political marriage, choosing instead to live unmarried for twenty years with an unsuitable Irish actress (by whom he had 10 children). However, after that relationship ended, he married the German princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meningen as a political match--and a financial one (he had been deeply in debt before the marriage). The marriage got off to a rocky start: William famously treated the wedding ceremony as a joke, offending the pious Adelaide. However, with time, the marriage proved to be a happy one; William does not appear to have strayed much if at all, and he treated her as a confidante and advisor as well as a beloved wife (much as his great-grandfather George II had treated his great-grandmother Caroline). For her part, Adelaide was happy to treat her husband's illegitimate children almost as her own - especially the youngest ones, as none of her own children with William survived infancy. She also shared her husband's great affection for his niece and heiress presumptive Victoria; Victoria's mother's incessant snubs to Adelaide were the trigger for William's famous announcement that [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech his only mission in life was to live just long enough to allow Victoria to become Queen without a regency]]. (He just barely did, to Victoria's eternal gratitude.)

** Princess Mary of Teck (UsefulNotes/ElizabethII's grandmother) was engaged to marry Prince Albert Victor, second-in-line to the throne and her second cousin (her mother was Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, daughter of the youngest surviving son of George III, Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and cousin of Queen Victoria), but he died of influenza six weeks into their engagement. Queen Victoria subsequently set up Mary with the new second-in-line, Albert's shy younger brother George (the future King George V), and the couple were soon pressured into an engagement by their families. Nonetheless, they quickly fell in love and remained devoted to each other throughout their lives. Unlike his father, he never had mistresses and always wrote to her when he was away.

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III. Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint and while they barely knew each other on their wedding day, they came to truly love each other within the first few years. It also helped that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day of her day and while he was a bit miserly, he was pious and generally good-hearted. Elizabeth was not a particularly politically active queen but he trusted her and respected her opinion above anyone else. Unlike their son who was a known womanizer even after marriage, historians have never found any evidence to suggest he was unfaithful to her at any point in time. His only rumored illegitimate child was born at least a decade before their marriage. Notably, when Elizabeth died in childbirth on her 37th birthday, he was so depressed that he became gravely ill. He allowed no one but his mother to come near him for weeks and weeks. He was young enough that he could have remarried and was urged by his advisors to do so but could never bring himself to do it. He passed away from tuberculosis only six years after she did.
*** UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots, Henry and Elizabeth's famous great-granddaughter, was married three times. The second marriage went badly and the third was worse, but the first one by all accounts was this trope. She was sent to live at the French court when she was five years old in order to be raised alongside her future husband, the Dauphin Francis; they were married when they were in their early teens, and contemporary records all agree that the pair adored one another. Francis's father, Henry II, observed that from the moment they first met they spoke like they'd known each other all their lives, and that his son considered Mary the most beautiful creature in existence. A little over a year after they married, Henry died, and Francis and Mary became the rulers of France and Scotland jointly. Unfortunately, they never had children (and quite possibly never consummated the marriage, as there is reason to believe Francis II was impotent due to health problems), and the young king died of a cerebral abscess at the age of 16 after only one year as king. Mary grieved extensively and actually wore her mourning hood at her second wedding; she kept a picture of Francis with her for the rest of her life. She requested that after her death, her body be returned to France to be entombed with his, but she was denied.

*** George III's third son William IV was originally reluctant to make a political marriage, choosing instead to live unmarried for twenty years with an unsuitable Irish actress (by whom he had 10 children). However, after that relationship ended, he married the German princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meningen as a political match--and a financial one (he had been deeply in debt before the marriage). The marriage got off to a rocky start: William famously treated the wedding ceremony as a joke, offending the pious Adelaide. However, with time, the marriage proved to be a happy one; William does not appear to have strayed much if at all, and he treated her as a confidante and advisor as well as a beloved wife (much as his great-grandfather George II had treated his great-grandmother Caroline). For her part, Adelaide was happy to treat her husband's illegitimate children almost as her own - especially the youngest ones, as neither of her own daughters with William survived infancy. She also shared her husband's great affection for his niece and heiress presumptive Victoria; Victoria's mother's incessant snubs to Adelaide were the trigger for William's famous announcement that [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech his only mission in life was to live just long enough to allow Victoria to become Queen without a regency]]. (He just barely did, to Victoria's eternal gratitude.)

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III; Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint, and by the time they were a few years into the marriage, it was a genuine love match. It also helped that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day, while Henry was shrewd and conniving but kind-hearted and pious; unlike their son, historians can find no indication that he ever took a mistress. Notably, when Elizabeth died in childbirth, Henry was so devastated that he fell in a big depression. No one except his own mother could get anywhere near him for weeks, and when he finally agreed to consider finding a new wife, his description of what he wanted was basically a carbon copy of Elizabeth. He ultimately did not remarry, and only outlived her by six years, dying from tuberculosis.

* The case of Sisi and Franz Josef spawned one of these - but ''not'' for Sisi and Franz Josef themselves. While they got along decently for royals, inasmuch as they didn't really fight (though he probably got two or three mistresses over the life of their marriage), [[UnrequitedLove Franz Josef was way more into Sisi than she was into him]]; as the free-spirited Sisi found the ultraconservative Franz Josef a little stiff. Instead, it was Helene of Wittelsbach, Sisi's older sister, whose ArrangedMarriage with Prince Maximilian of Thurn and Taxis turned out to be very happy. Indeed, Nene was the ''only'' HappilyMarried one among the ''very'' [[LoveHurts unlucky-in-love]] Wittesbach sisters until Maximilian died of kidney failure at the age of 36. [[TheMourningAfter Helene never remarried, and turned to philanthropy and managing the family businesses to ease her loneliness.]] The particularly ironic part of the whole thing is Helene was originally intended for Franz Josef.

** Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella's most famous child was their fifth, Catalina--known to history as UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon. Betrothed to the English heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor Henry VII of England]], she went ahead and married him; we'll never know how good that marriage could have been, as Arthur died shortly after the wedding. However, Arthur's younger brother, the new heir [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII Henry]], was a well-educated and boisterous-but-goodhearted young man, and Catherine apparently found him charming, at least in an amusing-boy way. The English court (after some hemming and hawing) thus decided it would be best if Henry married his brother's widow--even though [[{{Foreshadowing}} this required special dispensation from the Pope]]. The marriage was ''very'' happy for the better part of its 24-year existence (although not happy enough to keep Henry from taking mistresses)--but of course, we all know how it ended...

** In terms of Spain, Ferdinand VI married the Portuguese princess Barbara of Braganza in an arrangement with Portugal, while his stepsister married Barbara's brother. He was 16 and she was 18. While he was disappointed by her at first because she wasn't very beautiful in looks or proportions, they got to know each other better when they were stuck at house arrests, partly because of Ferdinand's cold stepmother Elisabeth Farnese, who was ambitious and only cared about her biological children. Barbara shared her husband's love for music, and despite they only had a stillborn son, they were happy together. Ferdinand was lonely and had never known a mother's love due to his mother passing away when he was 5 months old; he had also suffered his brothers' deaths and their lack of contact with his father Philip V. As a result, Barbara was a good influence on him and filled the void in his heart, and he valued her precious advice. When she fell ill and died in 1758, Ferdinand was heartbroken. He stopped signing documents a month after her death, he ate less and less and fasted more and more, became mentally unstable, neglected his hygiene, became thinner and paler with time and tried to commit suicide multiple times, asking weapons to stab himself with or poisons to inhale, which the guards always refused. After losing his beloved Barbara, poor Ferdinand lost his will to live without her, and he reunited with her in death one year later, depressed and malnourished at 45 with no children to whom he could pass the crown, so his stepbrother Charles III became king.
** Speaking of Charles, he married Maria Amalia of Saxony in 1737. Their marriage was arranged, and she was nearly 14, while he was 21. He fell in love with her, and they shared a competence with matters of State, a love for hunting, and promoted cultures, and they lived happily for years, with thirteen children. Maria Amalia died one year after her husband became King of Spain, and it was a hard blow for him. Charles III stated that before his wife died, she never upset him once.

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III; Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint, and by the time they were a few years into the marriage, it was a genuine love match. It probably didn't hurt that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day, while Henry was shrewd and conniving but kind-hearted and pious; unlike their son, historians can find no indication that he ever took a mistress. Notably, when Elizabeth died, Henry was so devastated that he fell deathly ill. No one except his own mother could get anywhere near him for weeks, and when he finally agreed to consider finding a new wife, his description of what he wanted was basically a carbon copy of Elizabeth. He ultimately did not remarry, and only outlived her by six years.
*** UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots, Henry and Elizabeth's famous great-granddaughter, was married three times. The second marriage went badly and the third was worse, but the first one by all accounts was this trope. She was sent to live at the French court when she was five years old in order to be raised alongside her future husband, the Dauphin Francois; they were married when they were in their early teens, and contemporary records all agree that the pair adored one another. Francois's father, Henri II, observed that from the moment they first met they spoke like they'd known each other all their lives, and that his son considered Mary the most beautiful creature in existence. A little over a year after they married, Henri died, and Francois and Mary became the rulers of France and Scotland jointly. Unfortunately, they never had children (and quite possibly never consummated the marriage, as there is reason to believe Francois was impotent due to health problems), and the young king died of a cerebral abscess at the age of 16. Mary grieved extensively and actually wore her mourning hood at her second wedding; she kept a picture of Francois with her for the rest of her life. She requested that after her death, her body be returned to France to be entombed with his, but she was denied.
** [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfStuart Anne of Great Britain]] and Prince George of Denmark. The marriage was arranged by Anne's uncle and was a devoted and loving one.

*** George II and his wife Caroline of Ansbach were HappilyMarried and devoted to each other. George particularly relied on Caroline's advice in politics, as she was universally acknowledged as a much shrewder player than her husband. They were happy even in spite of his [[ReallyGetsAround constant philandering]]--she knew of and cleared all his [[TheMistress mistresses]] ahead of time, vetting them for both personal flaws and potential political entanglements. He never remarried after her death: Caroline begged him ''on her deathbed'' to remarry when she was gone, but he was so certain no woman could replace her that he replied tearfully, "''[[GratuitousFrench Non, j'aurais des maîtresses!]]''" ("No, I shall have mistresses!").

** Princess Mary of Teck (UsefulNotes/ElizabethII's grandmother) was engaged to marry Prince Albert, second-in-line to the throne, but he died of influenza six weeks into their engagement. Queen Victoria subsequently set up Mary with the new second-in-line, Albert's shy younger brother George (the future King George V), and the couple were soon pressured into an engagement by their families. Nonetheless, they quickly fell in love and remained devoted to each other throughout their lives.

* Behold, UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile. Following their advisors (and, on Ferdinand's part, the recommendations of his father), they mutually arranged their marriage for purely political reasons--their marriage would unite the Castilian and Aragonese branches of the House of Trastámara and place all the Christian kingdoms of Iberia (save Portugal) under a single royal line. However, they were both young, reasonably attractive, and made a good team, and by all accounts, they got along tremendously (although not good enough to keep him from taking mistresses). Additionally, at least four of their five children and their most famous grandchild all had marriages like this--with the twist that it never ended well:
** The eldest, Isabel, was betrothed to Afonso, the heir to the Portuguese crown, through a treaty in 1480. When they met in 1490, they quickly fell in love and had a happy marriage. However, it was short, because Afonso died in mysterious circumstances (he fell from his horse even though he was an excellent rider, and his Castilian valet had disappeared without a trace) that benefitted Isabel's parents. Isabel became grief-stricken, and the only reason she did not enter a convent was that her parents never allowed her to. She would eventually marry Afonso's uncle, King Manuel I of Portugal, but she died giving birth to their child, Miguel (who in turn died less than a month short of his second birthday), to the deep sadness of her parents (and their political disappointment: they had hoped Miguel would unify the Iberian kingdoms). Isabel's younger sister, Maria, became Manuel's next wife; theirs was the only marriage involving the Catholic Monarchs' children that ended up as a boring late-medieval/early-modern royal marriage characterised by neither great love nor great tragedy.
** Their only son, Juan, was betrothed to Margaret of Austria as part of an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, UsefulNotes/MaximillianI. The two of them fell in love quickly, and, apparently, spent a lot of time in bed together. However, an illness took him before their first anniversary.

** The aforementioned Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor--son of Juana the Mad and Philip the Handsome--initially selected his very competent [[KissingCousins cousin]] Isabella of Portugal - Manuel I and Maria's eldest daughter - to be his wife for purely political reasons. When they met for the first time (to finalize the agreement), however, they fell intensely in love with each other almost at once. They honeymooned for several months at the Alhambra in Granada, where he ordered the seeds of a red carnation, which delighted her. He then ordered thousands more to be planted in her honour, establishing it as Spain's floral emblem. As a sign of how happy the marriage truly was, he remained faithful to her for as long as she lived. Despite their mutual affection, their marriage was not easy due to his constant absences. She wrote to him regularly, but often spent months without receiving letters, and he was even absent when she died. He was so distraught that he retired to a monastery for two whole months of mourning.[[note]]He would later return to the monastery after too many years fighting the Wars of Religion in Central Europe led him to abdicate the throne completely.[[/note]] Even on a practical level, her death was a big blow - she had been ruling Spain as regent during his absences and there were few people he could trust as much as his very competent wife to take care of business there. He never emotionally recovered from her death; wearing black for the rest of his life and never remarrying[[note]]though he had an affair long after her death[[/note]]. In her memory, he commissioned portraits, which he kept with him whenever he was. As he was dying, he held the same cross she had held as she had passed.
** In terms of Spain, Ferdinand VI married Portuguese princess Barbara of Braganza in an arrangement with Portugal, where his step-sister married Barbara's brother. He was 16 and she was 18. While he was disappointed by her at first because she wasn't very beautiful in looks or proportions, they got to know each other better when they were stuck at house arrests, partly because of Ferdinand's cold stepmother Elisabeth Farnese, who was ambitious and only cared about her biological children. Barbara shared her husband's love for music, and despite they only had a stillborn son, they were happy together. As Ferdinand was lonely and had never known a mother's love due to his mother passing away when he was 5 months old, his brothers' deaths and their lack of contact with his father Philip V, she was a good influence on him and filled the void in his heart, and he valued her precious advice. When she fell ill and died in 1758, Ferdinand was heartbroken. He stopped signing documents a month after her death, he ate less and less and fasted more and more, became mentally unstable, neglected his hygiene, became thinner and paler with time and tried to commit suicide multiple times, asking weapons to stab himself with or poisons to inhale, which the guards always refused. After losing his beloved Barbara, poor Ferdinand lost his will to live without her, and he reunited with her in death one year later, depressed and malnourished at 45 with no children to pass the crown to, so his step-brother Charles III became king.

** UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots, Henry and Elizabeth's famous great-granddaughter, was married three times. The second marriage went badly and the third was worse, but the first one by all accounts was this trope. She was sent to live at the French court when she was five years old in order to be raised alongside her future husband, the Dauphin Francois; they were married when they were in their early teens, and contemporary records all agree that the pair adored one another. Francois's father, Henri II, observed that from the moment they first met they spoke like they'd known each other all their lives, and that his son considered Mary the most beautiful creature in existence. A little over a year after they married Henri died, and they became the rulers of France and Scotland jointly. Unfortunately, they never had children (and quite possibly never consummated the marriage, as there is reason to believe Francois was impotent), and the young king died of a cerebral abscess at the age of 16. Mary grieved extensively and actually wore her mourning hood at her second wedding; she kept a picture of Francois with her for the rest of her life. She requested that after her death, her body be returned to France to be entombed with his, but she was denied.

* Behold, UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castile--). Following their advisors (and, on Ferdinand's part, the recommendations of his father), they mutually arranged their marriage for purely political reasons--their marriage would unite the Castilian and Aragonese branches of the House of Trastámara and place all the Christian kingdoms of Iberia (save Portugal) under a single royal line. However, they were both young, reasonably attractive, and made a good team, and by all accounts, they got along tremendously (although not good enough to keep him from taking mistresses). Additionally, at least four of their five children and their most famous grandchild all had marriages like this--with the twist that it never ended well:

** Princess Mary of Teck (UsefulNotes/ElizabethII's grandmother) was engaged to marry Prince Albert, second-in-line to the throne, but he died of influenza six weeks into their engagement. Queen Victoria subsequently set up Mary with the new second-in-line, Albert's shy younger brother George (the future King George V), and the couple were soon pressured into an engagement by their families. Nonetheless, they quickly fell in love and remained devoted to each other throughout the lives.

** Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella's most famous child was their fifth, Catalina--known to history as UsefulNotes/CatherineOfAragon. Betrothed to the English heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, she went ahead and married him; we'll never know how good that marriage could have been, as Arthur died shortly after the wedding. However, Arthur's younger brother, the new heir [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII Henry]], was a well-educated and boisterous-but-goodhearted young man, and Catherine apparently found him charming, at least in an amusing-boy way. The English court (after some hemming and hawing) thus decided it would be best if Henry married his brother's widow--even though [[{{Foreshadowing}} this required special dispensation from the Pope]]. The marriage was ''very'' happy for the better part of its 24-year existence (although not happy enough to keep Henry from taking mistresses)--but of course, we all know how it ended...

** The aforementioned Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor--son of Juana the Mad and Philip the Handsome--initially selected his [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask very competent]] [[KissingCousins cousin]] Isabella of Portugal - Manuel I and Maria's eldest daughter - to be his wife for purely political reasons. When they met for the first time (to finalize the agreement), however, they fell intensely in love with each other almost at once. They honeymooned for several months at the Alhambra in Granada, where he ordered the seeds of a red carnation, which delighted her. He then ordered thousands more to be planted in her honour, establishing it as Spain's floral emblem. As a sign of how happy the marriage truly was, he remained faithful to her for as long as she lived. Despite their mutual affection, their marriage was not easy due to his constant absences. She wrote to him regularly, but often spent months without receiving letters, and he was even absent when she died. He was so distraught that he retired to a monastery for two whole months of mourning.[[note]]He would later return to the monastery after too many years fighting the Wars of Religion in Central Europe led him to abdicate the throne completely.[[/note]] Even on a practical level, her death was a big blow - she had been ruling Spain as regent during his absences and there were few people he could trust as much as his very competent wife to take care of business there. He never emotionally recovered from her death; wearing black for the rest of his life and never remarrying[[note]]though he had an affair long after her death[[/note]]. In her memory, he commissioned portraits, which he kept with him whenever he was. As he was dying, he held the same cross she had held as she had passed.

** Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, parents of Henry VIII, also fell into this. Their marriage was arranged by their politically ambitious mothers, who were jointly eager to oust Richard III; Elizabeth's claim to the throne (being the eldest child of Edward IV) was a mite stronger than the young Tudor heir's (being a maternal-line great-grandson of a legitimised bastard grandson of Edward III), but Henry [[HeirClubForMen was a man]] and the Tudors were better able to [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority raise an army]] (through their Welsh connections). By uniting the claims, they both had a better chance of success. The couple accepted it without much complaint, and by the time they were a few years into the marriage, it was a genuine love match. It probably didn't hurt that Elizabeth was the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman of the day, while Henry was shrewd and conniving but kind-hearted and pious; unlike their son, historians can find no indication that he ever took a mistress. Notably, when Elizabeth died, Henry was so devastated that he fell deathly ill. No one except his own mother could get anywhere near him for weeks, and when he finally agreed to consider finding a new wife, his description of what he wanted was basically a carbon copy of Elizabeth. He ultimately did not remarry, and only outlived her by six years.

** Princess Mary of Teck ([[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Elizabeth II]]'s grandmother) was engaged to marry Prince Albert, second-in-line to the throne, but he died of influenza six weeks into their engagement. Queen Victoria subsequently set up Mary with the new second-in-line, Albert's shy younger brother George (the future King George V), and the couple were soon pressured into an engagement by their families. Nonetheless, they quickly fell in love and remained devoted to each other throughout the lives.

** Their only son, Juan, was betrothed to Margaret of Austria as part of an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximillian I. The two of them fell in love quickly, and, apparently, spent a lot of time in bed together. However, an illness took him before their first anniversary.

** Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella's most famous child was their fifth, Catalina--known to history as Catherine of Aragon. Betrothed to the English heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, she went ahead and married him; we'll never know how good that marriage could have been, as Arthur died shortly after the wedding. However, Arthur's younger brother, the new heir [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII Henry]], was a well-educated and boisterous-but-goodhearted young man, and Catherine apparently found him charming, at least in an amusing-boy way. The English court (after some hemming and hawing) thus decided it would be best if Henry married his brother's widow--even though [[{{Foreshadowing}} this required special dispensation from the Pope]]. The marriage was ''very'' happy for the better part of its 24-year existence (although not happy enough to keep Henry from taking mistresses)--but of course, we all know how it ended...
** The aforementioned Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor--son of Juana the Mad and Philip the Handsome--initially selected his [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask very competent]] [[KissingCousins cousin]] Isabella of Portugal - Manuel I and Maria's eldest daughter - to be his wife for purely political reasons. When they met for the first time (to finalize the agreement), however, they fell intensely in love with each other almost at once. They honeymooned for several months at the Alhambra in Granada, where he ordered the seeds of a red carnation, which delighted her. He then ordered thousands more to be planted in her honour, establishing it as Spain's floral emblem. As a sign of how happy the marriage truly was, he remained faithful to her for as long as she lived. Despite their mutual affection, their marriage was not easy due to his constant absences. She wrote to him regularly, but often spent months without receiving letters, and he was even absent when she died. He was so distraught that he retired to a monastery for two whole months of mourning.[[note]] He would later return to the monastery after too many years fighting the Wars of Religion in Central Europe led him to Abdicate the Throne completely.[[/note]] Even on a practical level, her death was a big blow - she had been ruling Spain as regent during his absences and there were few people he could trust as much as his very competent wife to take care of business there. He never emotionally recovered from her death; wearing black for the rest of his life and never remarrying[[note]], though he had an affair long after her death[[/note]]. In her memory, he commissioned portraits, which he kept with him whenever he was. As he was dying, he held the same cross she had held as she had passed.