10 Heart Touching and Legendary Love Stories From History

10 Heart Touching and Legendary Love Stories From History

Epic and legendary love stories are told and retold from one generation to another, prettified and dramatized by poets, sung and celebrated by common folks and reenacted and filmed by filming industry. These stories melt the hearts of everyone and make them realize the importance of true love in their lives. As Valentine’s Day is approaching, so I thought to give my readers the present of these 10 beautiful and true heart touching love stories from history.

10. Annie Oakley and Frank Butler

The lead characters of the famous Irish 1940's musical Annie Get Your Gun, were inspired from the true love story of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Annie Oakley was a skilled rifle shooter. In 1881, the famous Baughman and Butler shooting act was performing in Cincinnati. Star of the show, champion Frank E. Butler, boasted that he could beat any local marksman and challenged the gathering. Butler was amused to see Annie Oakley taking his challenge. After missing his 25th shot, Butler lost the match and the bet. She not only won the competition but also his heart. He began courting Oakley, and they married on June 20, 1882. Butler abandoned his career to manage hers. They both joined the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Annie died in 1926 and her heartbroken husband died 18 days later after 44 years of togetherness.

9. Salim and Anarkali

Princes Salim, the son of The Great Mughal emperor Akbar and his wife, Mariam-uz-Zamani was a spoiled and rude boy who fell in love with a maid of the palace, a beautiful maiden Anarkali. The mesmerizing beauty of Anarkali captivated and charmed the prince and soon they were deeply in love. But the emperor could not bear the fact that his son was in love with an ordinary courtesan. He started pressurizing Anarkali and devised all sorts of tactics o make her fall in the eyes of the prince. Salim was sent by the king on a mission and Anarkali was entombed alive in a brick wall. The tragic story of the couple brings tears to the eyes of every couple.

8. Antony and Cleopatra

The  love story of the last Pharaoh of Egypt and the dashing Roman general, Cleopatra and Mark Antony is a moving love story. The affair took place in 31 BC.  It was latter dramatized by William Shakespeare and is still staged all over the world. These two powerful people fell in love at first sight. Mark Antony left his wife, Octavia, for the mesmerizing Cleopatra and married her. Octavia’s brother Octavian brought the army of Rome to destroy them. It is said that while fighting a battle against Romans, Antony got false news of Cleopatra’s death. Shattered, he fell on his sword. Cleopatra when learned about the death of Antony, killed herself using the poison of an asp. Her two serving maids, Iras and Charmian, also killed themselves. They died but their love for each other lived.

7. Juan and Evita Peron

Juan and Evita Peron is an Argentinean couple from 1940's. Evita Peron was the second wife of President Juan Peron (1895–1974) and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She had a weak rural background and was an actress by profession. Juan Domingo was greatly charmed by the young and fragile Evita and the two fell in love. They changed the entire scope of Argentinian government and became one of the most beloved political couples of the era. The remained with each other till death separated them when Evita tragically died of cancer.

6. Tristan and Isolde

Isolde of Ireland was the daughter of the King of Ireland. She was betrothed to King Mark of Cornwall but fell in love with Tristan, the nephew of the king. She continued her affair with Tristan after her marriage with King Mark. Soon the king came to know of the affair. His love for his wife made him forgive her but he banned his nephew from Cornwall. Tristan went to Brittany and met Iseult of Brittany. He was attracted to her because of the similarity of her name to his true love. They got married but he couldn’t forget her true love. This made him ill. He wrote a letter to Isolde in hopes that she would be able to cure him. If she agreed to come, the returning ship’s sails would be white, or the sails would be black if she did not intend to come. Iseult couldn’t bear separation from her husband and lied to Tristan on seeing the white sails.  He died of grief before Isolde could reach him. Isolde died soon after of a broken heart.

5. Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson

A sacrifice of wealth and power was made by Prince Edward for his beloved Wallis Simpson. Prince Edward of England fell in love with a charming American married woman, Wallis Simpson. Wallis divorced her husband and the two started living together and their romance grew rapidly. Wallis could not be a British queen due to her American nationality. Edward became King of England in 1936, but he soon abdicated the throne to be married to the woman he loved. Edward passed away on May 28, 1972. Wallis lived for fourteen more years, many of which were spent in bed, secluded from the world. She passed away on April 24, 1986.

4. Pyramus and Thisbe

Babylonia’s most famous and inspirational love story is of Pyramus and Thisbe. Their love story started in 331 BC.  Pyramus was the most handsome man and was childhood friend of Thisbe, the fairest and most attractive  maiden in Babylonia. They both lived in neighborhood and their love grew along with them. Their parents were against their marriage. So one day they decided to run away and meet in the nearby fields near a mulberry tree. Thisbe reached there first and saw a lion coming near the spring close by to quench its thirst. Its jaws were bloody. She was frightened and ran away. In her fright she dropped her veil. The lion came and picked up the veil in his bloody jaws. At that moment, Pyramus reached near the mulberry tree and saw Thisbe’s veil in the jaws of the lion. He was heartbroken and forlorn and pierced his chest with his own sword in his grief. Thisbe couldn’t live without her beloved and died using the same sword. They were partners in life and partners in death.

3. Marie and Pierre Curie

Their common interest in science and their hardworking nature made them lovers and partners for life. In 1981 Maria Sklodowska Curie, known as Marie traveled to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. The steps she took to gain knowledge also took her to the true love of her life. She was smart and intelligent with kind looks and spent most of the day working in laboratories. It is here where she caught the eye of Pierre Curie, director one of the laboratories where Marie worked. After several marriage proposals, Marie Curie finally married him in 1895 and began their famous partnership. In 1898 they discovered polonium and radium. The Curies and scientist Henri Becquerel won a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 for discovering radioactivity. The spent their days and nights in laboratories working to make the biggest discovery for years to come. When Curie died in 1904, Marie carried on their work. She took his place at the Sorbonne and became the school’s first female teacher. In 1911 she became the first person to win a second Nobel Prize, this time for chemistry. She continued to experiment and lecture until her death of leukemia in 1934.

2. Abigail and John Adams

Abigail and John Adams love story is a half-century love affair when war separated them. Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States. She was the first Second Lady of the United States, and the second First Lady of the United States. They are known for their long, supportive and meaningful love letters which they wrote to each other when the American Revolutionary War and multiple other events forced Adams to be away from home for long periods of time, so they wrote each other long affectionate letters. She was a life partner of John Adams in the true sense. In one of her letters to her beloved husband she said:

    “The great anxiety I feel for my country, for you, and for our family, renders the day tedious, and the night unpleasant.”

Adams died on October 28, 1818, of typhoid fever, several years before her son became president. She is buried beside her husband in a crypt located in the United First Parish Church (also known as the Church of the Presidents) in Quincy, Massachusetts. Her last words were,

    “Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long.”

1. Eloise and Abelard

In a letter to Abelard, Heloise wrote:

    “You know, beloved, as the whole world knows, how much I have lost in you, how at one wretched stroke of fortune that supreme act of flagrant treachery robbed me of my very self in robbing me of you; and how my sorrow for my loss is nothing compared with what I feel for the manner in which I lost you.”

This is the true love story of a beautiful couple of a teacher and his disciple. The couple lived  in France in 12th century. Peter Abelard, a professor and theologian, fell in love with his own disciples who was a young girl in her teens named Heloise. He was boarding at her residemce and was greatly admired by the uncle of Heloise who was also her guardian. Both were charming and intelligent making them an exemplary couple. Their secret relationship resulted in the wrath of Heloise’s uncle Canon Fulbert. They eluded and Heloise gave birth to a baby boy. Circumstances separated them. Heloise became a nun and Abelard lived the life of a monk. After few years they started writing long and passionate love letters to each other. Both Peter Abelard and Heloise continued to go on living, to write, to love, to contribute to our literary history. They didn’t kill themselves, or marry anyone else (unless you count the fact that both married the church). It is believed that their love letters still exist. They were buried together in Paris. Heloise speaks of losing Abelard:

    “But if I lose you, what have I left to hope for? Why continue on life’s pilgrimage, for which I have no support but you, and none in you save the knowledge that you are alive, now that I am forbidden all other pleasures in you and denied even the joy of your presence which from time to time could restore me to myself?”