And the Rest Is History Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Acknowledgements

  POST SCRIPT

  A PERIGEE BOOK

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2011 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  PERIGEE is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Wagman-Geller, Marlene.

  And the rest is history : the famous (and infamous) first meetings of the world’s most passionate

  couples / Marlene Wagman-Geller.

  p. cm.

  “A Perigee book.”

  Includes bibliographical references.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-47553-9

  1. Couples—History. 2. Paramours—History. 3. Man-woman relationships—History. I. Title.

  HQ801.A2W34 2011

  306.7092’2—dc22 [B] 2010038244

  Most Perigee books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write: Special Markets, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To J—

  And the rest was my history

  INTRODUCTION

  Did my heart love till now?

  Forswear it, sight!

  For I ne’er saw true beauty till tonight.

  —From Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

  One of life’s most significant moments is being able to say, “I’ve met The One.” Such a statement is invariably followed by the question, “How did you two meet?” And the Rest Is History is a look at how history’s most famous lovers first laid eyes on each other: through fate, setups, and plain old blind luck. The first meetings shared in this book give us a look at what makes that one grand passion.

  In some instances, lovers’ destinies changed the world. When a weary traveler spied a girl at a well, it led to the birth of a people; an encounter outside the British Parliament sounded the death knell to Ireland’s independence. A Prague ball led to a great war, a fox hunt to a royal abdication.

  Although other encounters did not etch new lines on the face of history, they nevertheless left their calling cards on the arts. One love affair led to the crown jewel in the world’s architecture; a visit to a London home resulted in immortal poetry; a backstage exchange brought together the king and queen of country music.

  The stories in And the Rest Is History also focus on how the lovers parted. Often it is only in the moment of farewell that people truly look into the face of love. Before Abelard left for his Benedictine monastery, Héloise said, “Farewell, my only love.” Napoleon’s last words were “France, the army, the head of the army, Josephine.” Queen Victoria’s final breath was spent whispering, “Bertie.”

  In some cases, farewells were caused not by death but by an inability to remain together. Although many of the liaisons did not end with a happily-ever-after, this does not make them any less romantic; indeed, it can make them more so. The stories that touch us most deeply are often born of human frailty. Just because it ended doesn’t mean it wasn’t love.

  Like others reared on tales beginning with “Once upon a time,” I am an out-of-the-closet romantic. Growing up, I eagerly read about how fictional characters met their loves. Romeo’s life was inextricably bound with that of Juliet, whom he first spied when he crashed the Capulet ball. Sleeping Beauty awoke from a hundred-year slumber with a kiss from a stranger who just happened to be a handsome prince. Catherine was introduced to Heathcliff when her father brought home a foundling from the streets of Liverpool. However, as I was unlikely to be invited to Verona, I’m not adept with a spinning wheel, and no orphan was ever adopted in my childhood home, I turned from fictional forays to nonfictional ones to discover how people met their beshert, Yiddish for “preordained soul mate.”

  It is love that makes us want to live, or makes us want to die. Shakespeare’s Antony said of his Cleopatra, “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety.” The same can be said of the immortal love stories. Together these make a treasure trove of the romance of the ages, for both armchair romantics and those who can say of their own life-changing encounter, “And the rest is history.”

  Marlene Wagman-Geller

  San Diego, California, 2010

  Author’s note: There are always new stories of the ways couples met. Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, who tied the knot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2010, revealed that they met when Calista accidentally spilled wine on the Indiana Jones star at the 2002 Golden Globes. Please feel free to email me about other interesting first encounters at [email protected] or go to my website, www.onceagaintozelda.net.

  1

  Jacob and Rachel

  1759 BC

  The Old Test
ament tells the tale ofa lostparadise, a great flood, a promised land; it also features one of the world’s first love stories.

  The biblical Jacob’s life was the antithesis of uneventful—he wrestled an angel, had four wives and dozens of children, and christened a country. Yet one of his greatest struggles involved his years of toil—all for the woman he loved.

  Jacob’s life was tumultuous, even in the womb. When his mother, Rebekah, asked God why her pregnancy was so agonizing, she was told her twins were wrestling and were to do so all their lives. In fact, when Jacob was born, he came out clutching his twin Esau’s heel, which led to his being named Jacob, Hebrew for “the supplanter.” One fateful day, Esau, a hunter, returned home with a voracious appetite, and Jacob decided to exploit his brother’s hunger. Jacob told his starving sibling that he would feed him a “mess of pottage” (the biblical vernacular for a meal of lentils) in exchange for Esau’s inheritance of the family wealth, which was his birthright as the elder sibling. Their father, Isaac, old and blind, mistakenly conferred his blessing on the wrong son. Infuriated, Esau swore to kill his brother upon their father’s death. To protect Jacob, Rebekah sent him to her brother’s country; it was where he was to fall in love and, in the process, leave his imprint on the millennia.

  The life of Rachel, Jacob’s destiny, was calm before the arrival of her lover. She lived with her father and siblings; her task was to water their flock of sheep at a well near Haran, an outpost of the ancient city of Ur.

  Yet one day, her family had a visitor, and the family’s tranquillity was to become a thing of the past. Her first cousin Jacob arrived in a state of extreme exhaustion; he had just fled from his home, five hundred miles away, desperate not to become the victim of a fratricide, and had experienced an out-of-body experience in which he saw angels ascending and descending a ladder. He was relieved when he spied a well and sat down to rest. There he met a number of shepherds who were waiting for others to join them, because it took several men to lift the heavy stone that covered the well.

  The first time Jacob met Rachel she was approaching the watering hole with her sheep. She was “beautiful of form and face,” with mesmerizing eyes, and Jacob was immediately smitten. In an astounding feat of strength, exhaustion forgotten, he single-handedly removed the huge stone. Genesis states, “Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept.” She was suitably impressed with the combination of masculine strength and tears, and she hurried home with her newfound love interest in tow.

  Within a month the couple desired to wed, and Jacob approached Rachel’s father, Laban, to ask for the hand of his daughter. Laban agreed, with the caveat that Jacob would have to labor seven years without pay for the privilege. Jacob, the trickster, was to discover he was a rank amateur in comparison to Laban.

  Jacob was so enamored of his fiancée that the seven years “seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her” (Genesis). Indeed, those words are some of the loveliest ever penned of a man’s devotion to the woman he loved.

  At last, the longed-for day dawned. After the ceremony, the groom took his veiled bride to his tent. He was ecstatic to finally be with his love after his seven years of labor. To his extreme consternation, in the light of dawn, he found not his intended, but her older sister, Leah. In a fury he approached his father-in-law for an explanation. Laban justified the switch by saying he had promised Jacob his daughter; he had just not specified which one. (Perhaps this was karma for the deception Jacob had practiced on his father; he had pretended to be his brother, Esau, and Leah had pretended to be her sister, Rachel.)

  Laban pointed out that in Haran it was protocol for the older sister to marry first. Rather than bemoan love’s labors lost, Jacob again sued for the hand of his beloved. Laban agreed, with the provision that he had to agree to another seven-year tour of duty—though, in compassion, he conceded that the marriage could take place after the ceremonial week of the first wedding. Jacob, understanding that great love was synonymous with great sacrifice, consented. Hence Rachel became Jacob’s second wife, though she was always first in his heart.

  After the nuptials, the feelings between the two sisters were akin to the ones between the two brothers. Rachel did not forgive her sister for her part in the deception, and Jacob referred to Leah as the “unloved” one. However, despite her unloved status, Leah bore several children; after each one she prayed for her husband’s affections, which were never forthcoming. On the other hand, Rachel, the wife of Jacob’s heart, remained barren.

  One day, Leah’s son Reuben brought home mandrake roots as a present for his mother. His aunt desperately desired them, as they were a popular aphrodisiac in the ancient world. Leah agreed that her sister could have them in exchange for promising that Rachel would command Jacob to have intercourse with Leah that night. The result was that Leah again conceived while Rachel did not.

  Trying another tactic, Rachel arranged for her maidservant Bilhah to serve as her surrogate, and through this means she became the mother of two. In retaliation, Leah gave her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob, which resulted in another two sons.

  Jacob and Rachel’s greatest joy was when she finally conceived and gave birth to Joseph, who would become his father’s favorite. Jacob would one day show his preference by distinguishing Joseph with the special gift of a multicolored coat.

  Wanting his mother, Rebekah, to meet her new grandson, Joseph, Jacob decided it was time to depart Haran and return to Canaan, in the hope that with time Esau’s hatred had abated. Jacob gathered his four wives, dozens of children, and flocks of sheep and set his eyes toward home. Before they left, Rachel stole her father’s idols, which represented the protective deities of his home and served as a property deed. Her plan was to secure the property for her husband. She figured that years ago, on what should have been her wedding night, Laban had stolen her happiness; it was time to return the transgression.

  The clan had crossed the Euphrates when Laban arrived and accused Jacob of theft. His innocent son-in-law denied knowledge of wrongdoing with the curse, “With whoever you find your gods, he will not live” (Genesis). Not convinced, Laban searched every inch of all the tents; however, he neglected to look under the camel seat cushion where Rachel was sitting—the spot where the idols were hidden. She explained, “Let not my lord be angered that I cannot rise up before you, for the way of women is upon me” (Genesis). This was a lie; she was not menstruating and was actually pregnant with her second son. Laban departed, but Jacob’s curse remained.

  During the odyssey, Jacob, despite his four wives and innumerable children, found time for solitude, wherein he had his second out-of-body experience. In it he encountered an angel who wrestled with him throughout the night. In the course of the struggle the angel informed him that he was no longer Jacob, the supplanter; henceforth he would be known as Israel, meaning “ruling with God.” He was told that a great nation would be named after him, and his twelve sons would give rise to twelve tribes.

  When Canaan was in sight, ever protective of his first love, Jacob placed her at the rear of his family (the place of the greatest safety) in the contingency of an attack by Esau, who he still feared. Jacob was overjoyed when his brother not only forgave him but welcomed him; however, his elation was short-lived. At this juncture Rachel went into an excruciating labor, and after giving Jacob his twelfth son, Benjamin, she passed away: “And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day” (Genesis).

  Her husband was devastated at the loss of the woman he had adored since he had laid eyes on her, the one who was to be revered as the biblical matriarch. Jacob continued on his journey, his heart left behind.

  Postscript

  Rachel’s Tomb is considered the third-holiest site in Judaism. It is visited by thousands annually.

  Jacob (then known as Israel) passed away in Egypt, in the Land of Goshen. His son Joseph returned his father’s b
ody to his homeland, Canaan, where he gave him a stately burial and interred him in the Cave of Machpelah to join those of his grand-parents Abraham and Sarah; his parents, Isaac and Rebekah; and his first wife, Leah.

  2

  Abelard and Héloise

  1118

  The relationship scandal of the twelfth century is the tale of Abelard and Héloise, star-crossed lovers whose passion survived calamity and continues to echo throughout the millennia.

  Medieval depictions of women are stylized: they wear chastity belts, weave tapestries, and watch their knights jousting. However, Héloise d’Argenteuil was not cut from the cloth of her time; she was an accomplished linguist, versed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Her uncle and guardian, Fulbert, served as the canon of Notre Dame University, a position of respect; however, his greatest source of pride was his beautiful and accomplished niece. Because Héloise’s greatest pursuit was knowledge, the canon decided to procure the most revered teacher in France.

  Héloise’s destiny, Peter Abelard, was the most renowned thinker of his age, the son of a noble family from a village in Brittany. Although he had been destined for knighthood, he forfeited that path for academia, and thousands of students converged on Notre Dame University (which later became the University of Paris) to hear the high priest of philosophy. He became so venerated that he prided himself on being the most eminent living theologian.

  In the twelfth century, the position of teacher was similar to one of cleric in that both had to take vows of chastity, as those professions demanded single-minded devotion. This caveat did not bother Abelard, because he had dedicated his life to learning—that is, until temptation made its appearance.