There are many famous romances in history and the first one that comes to mind is that of the all-fated lovers Heloise and Abelard, whose story is one of passion, seduction and tragedy. Peter Abelard (1079-1141) was a philosopher who was contracted to teach Canon Fulbert's beautiful niece Heloise (1101-1164). The two fell in love and Heloise delivered a son, Astrolabe, after which they married secretly and Abelard placed Heloise in a convent. The uncle, believing Abelard had abandoned Heloise, had him attacked and castrated in his sleep. Abelard became a monk and Heloise took the veil and became prioress of a convent. They corresponded until his death.
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning
The two poets met in 1844 when Elizabeth (b.1806) was an invalid, spending her time languishing on a couch following the death of her brother Edward in Torquay, where they had gone seeking a cure for her delicate health. Browning had read her works and was very much impressed by her artistry. After a six-year courtship, kept from the eyes of her demanding father, they married and went to Italy to live. The result of the courtship was Elizabeth's masterpiece, Sonnets from the Portuguese, which contained the famous lines, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways .Elizabeth and Robert had a son, Robert Wiedemann Browning in August of 1846, and Elizabeth died at Florence, Italy, in 1861. There are no descendants.
Robert and Clara Schumann
Another noted Victorian couple whose romance was frowned upon by her father (not an unusual thing for the time) was that of composer Robert Schumann(b.1810) and concert pianist Clara Wieck (b.1819). Schumann had been a piano student of Friedrich Wieck and had fallen in love with his talented pianist daughter Clara.The father was not at all pleased about this state of affairs and it was only after years of pleading and a court appearance that the pair was allowed to wed.
They had many children but Robert was slowly losing his grip on reality. Clara was forced to take care of the family and go on tour continually to make enough money for them to survive. Robert twice tried to commit suicide by jumping in the Rhine River. At the time of his death he was estranged from Clara. A tragic end to a fairytale romance in the world of music.
King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson
One of the most famous of all love affairs happened in England in the 1930's when the heir to the throne began a notorious romance with the twice-divorced American Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson. He was truly besotted and would not hear of giving up his love. Their story was read all over the world, and although the British newspapers suppressed it for a long time it soon became common knowledge. Nothing could persuade Edward to change his mind and he abdicated the throne for 'the woman I love.' They spent many years as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor...exiles from England and shunned by the royal family. Edward predeceased his wife by many years and the Duchess spent the last several years of her life as a virtual invalid in body and mind.
In an investigation of their lives, only the marriage of Barrett and Browning seems to have been happy.
Source
General Knowledge
For further reading see Famous Valentine Birthdays
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