Great loves!

Love stories about couples who believed in eternal love, even when the whole world was against them, still ignite our imagination, motivate, and sometimes sadden. These are love stories that many secretly dream about, but also hope that "theirs" will have a happy ending. The myth of eternal love has run through the centuries and has largely had a tragic ending.

Yet this has never shaken the belief in the old “they lived happily ever after” These few love stories still serve as an example and an eternal inspiration to incorrigible romantics.

Paris and Helena of Trojan

According to Greek mythology, the love between Paris and Helena caused the fall of Troy. The story begins when the Trojan prince Paris was chosen to decide which of the three goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - is the most just. After choosing Aphrodite, she in return promised him the most beautiful woman in the world. The most beautiful of all was Helena, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, the wife of the king of Sparta - Menelaus.

When the Trojan prince once came to the Spartan court, Menelaus hosted him for a week, before he went to Crete for his father's funeral. During Menelaus' absence, thanks to the goddess Aphrodite, Helena fell in love with Paris.

Helena and Paris fled to Troy and got married there. Her escape sparked a ten-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris was mortally wounded before the end of the war, when Helena decided to return to her husband.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony

The love between Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and the Roman statesman and military leader Mark Antony was remembered in history after the tragic end that befell this couple - they both killed each other.

After a military defeat at the Battle of Action, which Mark Antony suffered from Caesar's nephew Octavian, Cleopatra found herself at the mercy of the new Roman ruler who was not interested in the charms of the Queen of Egypt.

Octavian most likely wanted to take her to Rome and make her parade through the streets of the city there as a war trophy. Antonius first heard that Cleopatra had committed suicide, so he wanted to end his life with a sword. The mortally wounded were told that Cleopatra had not killed herself and taken to the mausoleum where Cleopatra barricaded herself. He died there in her arms.

Not wanting to go through the humiliations prepared for her by Octavian, Cleopatra committed suicide, as the legend says, by letting the cobra bite her.

Tristan and Isolde

The story of Tristan and Isolde is an old Celtic story about the tragic love of two young people. Although it originated much earlier among the Celts, this legend only gained importance in the Middle Ages, especially in France, in several versions, the most famous of which was written by Thomas Dangleter around 1180.

The main heroes of this legend are the tragic knight Tristan, the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall and Princess Isolde, the daughter of the Irish queen of the same name. Tristan's task was to accompany Isolde to his uncle when she was promised, but by mistake, on the way, they both took a love potion. Because of his love for Isolde, Tristan broke his vow of allegiance to his uncle. The love affair lasted until his uncle found out what was going on "behind his back".

The couple in love managed to avoid death, but Isolde was forced to return to her husband, while Tristan left Cornwall and married another woman.

When he was mortally wounded by a poisonous spear, he had one wish for Isolde to visit him. He was convinced that Isolde would not come and therefore died, while the beautiful Isolde died of grief when she found the man of her life dead.

Lancelot and Geneva

The story of the love triangle in which King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and Guinevere found themselves is as well known as the legend of King Arthur itself.

King Arthur - the legendary British king, Lancelot - the best knight of the king, Ginevra - the most beautiful woman in Britain. The intertwined destinies of these people eventually caused a battle, the death of all the actors and the downfall of the wonderful Arthur's empire. One of the initiators of the battle that represents the historic event is precisely the knight Lancelot, the best and most brilliant knight Arthur has ever had.

The most famous version of the story says that Lancelot was mortally in love with the beautiful king's wife - Guinevere , but she was also in love with him. Arthur pretended not to see what was happening between them for a long time, but in the end he declared war on Lancelot. Evidence of infidelity was personally provided to him by his unrecognized son Morded.

Lancelot did not want to fight against his king, so with a heavy heart he was forced to leave Guinevere and go to France.

Romeo and Juliet

Probably the most famous story ever about tragic love. Father and mother wanted to marry Julia to Paris, a respectable, young and rich nobleman. Because of the eternal love she vowed to Romeo - she chose death over marriage.

The monk Lavrentije wanted to prevent the tragedy, he gave Julia a potion that should only put her to sleep, and he sent a message to Romeo that she was actually alive. Everyone thought Julia was dead and buried her.

However, the messenger sent by Lawrence did not arrive in time for Romeo. He goes to the tomb of Capuleti and, thinking that life without Julia no longer makes sense to him, drinks the poison and dies. Shortly afterwards, Julia wakes up and, seeing that her loved one has killed himself, takes the dagger and takes her own life.

After the tragedy, other members of both families come to the tomb. They are reconciled over the dead bodies of their children because they realize that the cause of this is unreasonable hatred which has imposed limits on true and pure love and thus brought great misfortune to all.

Napoleon and Josephine

Originally concluded as a marriage of convenience, it later grew into a passionate and huge love.

On March 8, 1796, Napoleon married Josephine. About this marriage, France has speculated for centuries how it really happened. According to one variant that eventually settled down and was the only true one on a windy March night in 1796, just before leaving for Italy where he was to take command of the French army fighting the Austrians, Bonaparte woke the dreamy registrar and forced them to marry. Many years later, as she could not give him heirs, Napoleon left her for another woman, and she died of a broken heart. Napoleon, however, never got over Josephine. He picked violets from her garden and kept them until he died. Even today, Napoleon's letters to Josephine are among the most beautiful declarations of love written by a man. The letters reveal the love and passion of a man who did not seriously love her before and who thought that he found in his mistress, and then his wife, all the best that can be found in a woman.

Aleksandar Obrenović and Draga Mašin

One couple from Serbia was also on this list. It seems that the love between Aleksandar Obrenović and Drago Mašin was stronger than anything. The love between the young king and the widow provoked rage in the country. However, that could not stop them from becoming husband and wife and swearing eternal love.

The situation visibly worsened after the alleged fake pregnancy scandal, which seriously shook the country's international reputation and enraged a group of military officers who soon began plotting against the royal couple - the last king of the Obrenovic dynasty, along with his wife, was killed in the May 1903 coup. . years.

Bonnie and Clyde

The famous crime tandem Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are probably the most famous romantic couple in American history. They killed, kidnapped, stole, robbed and for a long time successfully escaped from the police.

It is believed that Bonnie and Clyde met in January 1930 at the house of a mutual friend. According to eyewitnesses, they liked each other at the same time. Their deeds made them the "number one enemy of the state" in America between 1931 and 1335. They robbed about 12 banks and were killed in a police ambush in Louisiana.

Forbidden love of Princess Margaret

The beautiful Princess Margaret, the only sister of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, was not allowed to love her life. Peter Townsend was divorced and their marriage was out of the question. She suffered all her life because of it.

The most beautiful British princess ever, glamorous, with an irresistible smile - the British public adored Margaret, the younger sister of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. They wanted, of course, the best and most special husband for a favorite member of the royal family. Her older sister, the Queen, also wanted it, but the beautiful Margaret longed for only one thing - the extremely charming and handsome pilot Peter Townsenden, a married man with two children.

She preserved all his letters and gave permission that they could be opened only 100 years after her birth. Thus, in 2030, the public will learn all about the love, sorrow and suffering of unhappy lovers