With Valentine’s Day looming around the corner we all need a precedent , a standard to which we can all hope to be measured by one day. Failing that we can always use a famous example to ease some of the pressure on our own more low key romances, let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, that being said we hope you all enjoy these notable samplings of famous couples throughout history.
An ancient Roman general and political leader uniting with the last pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian empire, is a very high standard of relationship beyond your typical ‘power couple’. When Marc Antony summoned Cleopatra VII to the city of Tarsus, in the year 41 BC, to ascertain her loyalties towards a precarious post-Julius Caesar Rome, he was seemingly so charmed that he chose to follow her back to Egypt so they could spend the winter together (awww). Cleo and Marc eventually had three children together, including a set of twins, and were married under the Egyptian rite.
Shah Jahan and Arjumand Banu Begum were betrothed to one another at the ages of 15 and 14, respectively. So enamored was the young Shah Jahan that after their wedding celebrations 5 years later he bequeathed his new wife Mumtaz Mahal, meaning ‘jewel of the palace’. Despite the jubilant inexperience of your standard adolescent love affair this couple had surprising tenacity staying together for 19 years until the tragic death of Mumtaz due to complications during the birth of their 14th child. Not to let his true love be forgotten by history Shah Jahan ordered the construction of an awe inspiring white marble mausoleum dedicated in her honour known as the Taj Mahal.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow met in January of 1930, she was 19 years old and married to a man imprisoned for murder, he was 20 and a directionless petty criminal born into an impoverished family, perhaps fittingly they were smitten on first sight. A few months later Clyde Barrow would be arrested and sent to prison, when he reemerged in 1932 he and Bonnie commenced one of the most notorious crime sprees in United States history, finally dying at each others side in 1934 after a police ambush in Louisiana. Certainly not role models, their story is not one to be romanticized or taken out of context, but through out their conquests their unwavering commitment to one another can hardly be questioned.
Perhaps the most cliche and consistently invoked love stories of all time William Shakespeares creations Romeo of the Montagues, and Juliet of the Capulets are the classic definition of love at first sight. Filled with youthful vigor the young couple meet, fall in love, and agree to be married Sunday evening before a comedy of errors leads to their tragic demise the following Thursday. The story has resonated through out the following centuries as a definitive assurance towards the power of love, and even for the most jaded and cynical amongst us it’s hard to deny the beauty of their innocence.
Jack
Forget the Celine Dion, David Grey and Sade - Jack's music choices will make your household's mutual playlist better than you ever imagined it could be.
