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Polygamists in History

The Revolting Man

The Revolting Man

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So two things, first off as I typed "Polygamists in History" I was reading it in my head in a big, deep echoey voice like the intro to the Muppets "Pigs in Space" segment. And the second is that I realize that this isn't my story but it is a real person's story so I put it here. Feel free to move it.

So I have been interested for some time in finding the hidden western polygamists that I just know have existed through the ages but have flown under the radar. I have found a few , some of them I do not want to claim, like Sigmund Freud and Carl Marx. Others are quite exciting.

My favorite so far has been John of Gaunt. Everything about this guy was amazing. He was the brother of an English king, the friend of Geoffrey Chaucer and one of the most powerful figures in Europe at the time. He was loyal too, never trying to chisel his nephew out of the throne once his brother had died.

The most amazing thing about him though is that he was a bona fide living the life polygamist. He had two legal wives that followed in the normal course of these things but he also had a lifelong "mistress" named Katherine Swinford. He had children with all three women plus one more but Katherine taught all of the children and all of the children grew up knowing each other and were loyal to each other in later years, although the grandchildren got pretty antagonistic.

Eventually Gaunt "married" Swinford and their children were legitimated by the church. All subsequent monarchs of England, Spain and Portugal are descended from this guy. I am sure that a perusal through the famous mistresses of history will turn up quite a few more of what we would call marriages. I'll keep looking and if anyone knows of others let me know please!
 
I think you will find alot of them among royals.
Would the infamous relations of prince Charles of England and Camilla Parker Bowles count?

Also interesting could be the colonial times when men had a wife in Europe and often one in the colony.
 
Not exactly "in history" (though he's certainly old enough to qualify), but my favorite "polygamist in plain sight" is Warren Buffett. Being America, he didn't legally marry the second until after the first had passed, but they otherwise has a functionally polygamous relationship. They even all signed the same Christmas card.

polyinthemedia.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-does-warren-buffett-get-married.html
 
Did not know about Marx...and I majored in Sociology.

You bring up a good point - I'm sure where we hear the word "mistress" in mainstream teachings, there are many plural marriages under the surface.
 
Marx probably only barely fits the definition. He had a live in maid that he impregnated with his wife's knowledge. She lived with them for quite some time and I haven't found out the outcome of the relationship yet. It wouldn't pass the Biblical Families smell test anyway but it does meet some of the basic definitions.
 
Harald Hardrada was an amazing figure. He Is considered the last Viking king and his death is generally considered the end of the Viking age.

As a young man he was a mercenary and fought all over the known world, eventually rising to influence imperial succession of Byzantium.

He married a Russian princess and returned to his native Norway where he became king and started a 20 year campaign to take over Sweden as well. In order to shore up political support he married a second wife from a powerful Norwegian family. Both wives outlived him and bore him children.

Harald was a Christian and his invasion of England just two weeks before William the Conqueror may have done much to allow the Normans to take over the country so swiftly and easily.
 
Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, comes to mind.
 
woman said:
I think you will find alot of them among royals.
Would the infamous relations of prince Charles of England and Camilla Parker Bowles count?

Also interesting could be the colonial times when men had a wife in Europe and often one in the colony.
Click to expand...
Still happens today. I've run into several men who have a family they leave behind in Mexico or Central America to find work in the States, but then find a woman here. They still send money to the first and hop the boarder to check in and fulfill husband duties regularly.
 
Mojo said:
Still happens today. I've run into several men who have a family they leave behind in Mexico or Central America to find work in the States, but then find a woman here. They still send money to the first and hop the boarder to check in and fulfill husband duties regularly.
Click to expand...
Same here, I had a friend I worked with in Afghanistan who had a wife in the states and a wife in Columbia. He worked a two months on, one month off schedule. When off, he would spend two weeks with one wife and two weeks with the other wife. Neither wife knew about the other.

It came to an end when he bought a new laptop and gave his daughter his old laptop. His daughter learned about the Colombian wife. His American wife gave him an ultimatum.

I’ve always wondered what would have happened if he had been honest with both women from the start.
 
Phillip said:
Same here, I had a friend I worked with in Afghanistan who had a wife in the states and a wife in Columbia. He worked a two months on, one month off schedule. When off, he would spend two weeks with one wife and two weeks with the other wife. Neither wife knew about the other.

It came to an end when he bought a new laptop and gave his daughter his old laptop. His daughter learned about the Colombian wife. His American wife gave him an ultimatum.

I’ve always wondered what would have happened if he had been honest with both women from the start.
Click to expand...
And I'm sure he was an upstanding guy and neither wife felt unloved or neglected, yet still got the ultimatum. Sad.
 
Charlemagne was a polygamist. Less well known than his military exploits was that he was a great supporter of Christianizing Europe. Also Vladimir the Great of Russia was a polygamist; who was responsible for the Christianization of that nation.

What the Hebrew's called concubine the Europeans often called a mistress. On a hunch I looked up Napoleon, and see he had many mistresses and children by them; though his relationships (some adulterous) were far from model. Mistresses were pretty much standard fare for European royalty.
 
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