Bonnie and Clyde

Their official names were Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker. When they met, Bonnie was already married to a convicted murderer. She was only 19, and Clyde was 21. Their brief affair together was based on killing sprees and robberies. In the four years they were together, it was believed that they had committed 13 murders, and several burglaries and robberies. Having lived viciously by the gun, the treacherous couple was gunned down in frenzy, by a posse of law enforcement on May 23, 1934.

Romeo and Juliet

(Image by Author, Verona 1998)

They were young, and their love seemed destined for tragedy. One hopes that their tender admiration for each other is one that will last. Instead, their testament to each other is met in death. Their story has been made famous by Shakespeare’s account of two star-cross’d lovers. Even in Verona, there is a picturesque house that many believe to be Juliet’s. Underneath her veranda, is a statue of the fair lady, and many rub her in the hopes of finding true love. So profound is the tale of their tragic love story, that it is one that has been told for centuries.

King Arthur and Guinevere

(Image by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, c.1855)

The queen of King Arthur was so exceptionally beautiful, that he could not resist her. Yet his lady had a roving eye. While she went to great lengths to gain the attention of her king, Guinevere would eventually stray. Her betrayal to King Arthur by his knight Sir Lancelot would cause the eventual downfall of King Arthur. Her disloyalty would end the Knights of the Round Table and Camelot when Sir Lancelot saved her from being burned at the stake. Some say Guinevere went to a convent having been ashamed of her actions. But no one is quite sure of what became of her.

Henry VIII and Kathryn Howard

Of all his wives, it is said that he loved Kathryn the most. By the time he took her as his wife, he was 49, overweight, and had an ulcerated leg. The young, beautiful Kathryn was a mere 19, but already seasoned. Kathryn doted on Henry and somehow managed to spring a new life in him. But not even a year into their marriage, rumors began to swirl of Kathryn’s infidelities, and she had many. It didn’t help that one of the men she was accused of having an affair with, was her personal secretary and had been spotted in her room late at night on many occasions. Evidence began to pile up against the Queen that she had been un-virtuous prior to marriage and after. She was eventually taken to the Tower and executed for such treason against the King.

Sid and Nancy

To say their love was unstable and tempestuous is an understatement. Often it was a violent on again off again, bitter romance. The pugnacious John Simon Ritchie was a fiery bassist for the Sex Pistols. Nancy Spungen was the fodder to his antics. With her he seemed quiet and contemplative. Without her, he was erratic and out of control. Their relationship largely revolved around drug abuse (mostly heroin). In an attempt to straighten him up, lead singer Johnny Rotten pleaded with Sid to be rid of his Nancy. It was to no avail. Under mysterious circumstances, Nancy was found on the morning of October 12, 1978 with a single stab wound to her abdomen. Shortly afterwards, Sid would follow her into death by overdosing on heroin. His ashes were scattered over Nancy’s grave.

Guinevere is Arthur’s wife, and it’s logical to presume he had at least one. But it’s unlikely that a Celtic Arthur would’ve considered a woman to be anything more than valuable property. Her Celtic name, Gwenhwyfar, means “white shadow.” However, in the earliest documents, Gwenhwyfar is neither male nor female, but rather the cause of the strife at Camlann. Later writers took this to mean that she had an affair with Mordred thus sparking the civil war between him and Arthur. However, at least one medieval writer supposed that Gwyn Hyvar was a warrior who brought about the civil war through treachery.

Kay, or Cei as it should be spelled, was probably Arthur’s steward. And Cei bears special mention because his name is actually a shortening of the popular Roman names, Caius and Cato, and provides some proof that vestiges of Roman culture persisted into Arthur’s time. Bedivere is a medieval form of the Celtic Bedwyr, and he’s named as Arthur’s closest friend. Bedwyr seems to be the original prototype for Lancelot. The likelihood that either of these men existed, however, is slim given that they appear superhuman in every story. Kay could be the same as Cato, a real fifth and sixth century petty king, but this is mere speculation.

Gawain makes an appearance in a tenth century Welsh tale, Culhwch and Olwen, as Gwalchmai. In the romances, Gawain is the son of Loth, one of Arthur’s chief enemies, but in the Welsh tale mentioned above, Gwalchmai is the son of Gwyar, evidence that Gawain and Gwalchmai weren’t the same, and that one or both were invented long after Arthur’s time. Based on linguistic evidence, Gwalchmai might actually have evolved into more than one Arthurian character, namely Gawain, Agravaine, Gareth, and Gaheris, incidentally, all sons of Loth in later tales. Gawain is initially a virtuous character, able to resist the temptations of seductive women who appear in such tales as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But by the time of Sir Thomas Malory, the noble Sir Galahad replaces Gawain as the hero in such stories, and the once great warrior becomes a brawler, a drunkard, and a liar.

Mordred gets a fleeting mention in The Annals of Wales, but doesn’t show up again until the romances. Mordred could be the same as the Celtic king Medrawd, a warrior king who lived in the generation after Arthur supposedly did, and who was in the frontlines of the continuing wars against the Saxons. He is a hero rather than a villain. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, he is merely the nephew of King Arthur. In later romances, his deeds become increasingly vile, and his behavior is explained by making him the bastard son of Arthur, the evil spawn of an incestuous seduction.

Ostensibly, the idea of the Knights of the Round Table is yet another medieval invention, a symbol for egalitarianism in a world where inequality prevailed. In fact, Arthur came to represent an idyllic world of fantastic possibilities where one could escape from day-to-day drudgery and hardships.