As everyone now knows, Arnold Schwarzenegger split up with his lady love after telling her (10 years later) that he fathered a child with a member of the ‘household staff’. Now, I’m sure the astute social commentators at TMZ are making their own poignant observations about the whole situation, but not I. Nay. Because unlike those puritanical critics, I remember a time where it was not only accepted for those in power to have illegitimate children, it was expected.
America has a long history of politicians fathering children with members of their ‘household staff’ (yeah, looking at you TJ). And before that, in the days of monarchy, it was actually a requirement for kings to impregnate anything that moved: England’s Edward the IV had 16 illegitimate children (who fared better than his legitimate children, the infamous Princes in the Tower), Pope Alexander the VI had 2, James the V of Scotland had 9, Alexander the II of Russia had 7, and the Louis from XIV-XVI all had like 20 little bastards. Ironically, notorious ladies’ man Henry VIII is credited with only two illegitimate children (although I’m sure in the Catholic Church’s eyes, all children born in latter marriages lacked legitimacy).
Historically speaking, having a bastard child is about as politically correct as you can get. I wouldn’t be surprised if Arnie would up as the next King of Austria (you’d better watch out Archduke Karl Thomas Robert Maria Franziskus GeorgBahnam Habsburg-Lothringen…)
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