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Lies that Have Completely Taken Over these Historical Stories

Khalid Elhassan September 7, 2022 40 min

14. A Romantic Prince Who Was Actually a Serial Woman Beater

Bonnie Prince Charlie used to beat his wife, Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern. Uffizi

Bonnie Prince Charlie liked to beat up women. Most notoriously, he often beat up his wife, Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedden. He married her when she was nineteen and he was fifty one. An obsessive control freak, he set up a system of alarm bells around her bed at night to alert him if she tried to sneak off to see a lover. He abused her so often, that she begged the pope for help. She was finally freed of his clutches when they separated after twelve years of marriage.

Bonnie Prince Charlie with Scottish Highlander rebels in 1745. The Scotsman

Not only did Bonnie Prince Charlie like to beat up women, he was also a severe alcoholic. His love of the bottle got worse after he was defeted at Culloden, and alcoholism wrecked what was left of his career and prospects. It was right around that time that he seduced and took for his mistress a young and innocent girl, Marie Louise de la Tour d’Auvergne. He got her pregnant, then immediately broke her heart and callously ditched her for another mistress.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.