6. Caroline Lacroix was the teenage mistress of the King of Belgium who became his wife on his deathbed
Caroline or Blanche Lacroix was a sixteen-year-old barmaid and part-time prostitute when she met the elderly Leopold II of Belgium in Paris in 1900. The sixty-five-year-old monarch was charmed by Caroline and immediately set her up as his mistress. The couple caused a scandal because of the age difference and the perception that Caroline controlled her elderly lover. She was nicknamed “Queen of the Congo” as the press blamed her love of luxury for the money Leopold brutally extracted from the colony. However, Leopold’s reign — and his relationship with Caroline survived. The couple had two sons, and in 1909, when it was apparent the King was dying, he married Caroline. She died in France, comfortably provided for by her husband.