History Main / HistoricalRelationshipOverhaul

* An InUniverse example occurs in ''Fanfic/TheTrueHistoryOfTheBlackfyreRebellion'', which is written as a Shakespeare-style play authored by an OriginalCharacter a while after the events it describes. Daemon Blackfyre and his half-sister Daenerys are portrayed as StarCrossedLovers, one of the signs that the author was a Blackfyre sympathizer. Canonically, there is no evidence to back it up; Daemon and Daenerys, by all accounts, were HappilyMarried to other people.

* In ''Film/ABeautifulMind'', the marriage of John Nash and Alicia Larde is presented as a constant, stabilizing influence on Nash as he descends into schizophrenia, and the ending has him publicly dedicate his Nobel Prize to her in 1994. In reality, Nash and Larde divorced in 1963 and did not renew their relationship until 1994. They didn't remarry until 2001, the same year the movie came out.

* ''{{Film/Elizabeth}}'':

* ''Film/IShotJesseJames'': The film shows Kelley and Ford meeting around the time of Jesse James?s death, both trying to court [[LoveInterest Cynthy]]. There is no historical evidence to suggest that the two ever met each other outside of Creede, nor that they were involved in a [[LoveTriangle love triangle]] with a woman. Oddly enough, the feud over the ring is based in reality, though it was a ring for Ford himself, not a LoveInterest.

* ''VideoGame/KessenII'': While the story also takes numerous liberties with the source material, one insane twist is the reveal that Liu Bei and Cao Cao are somehow brothers. [[note]]Historically, Cao Cao was born as part of a prominent noble family, while Liu Bei was born to a completely unordinary family that claimed descent from the imperial line. In addition, they were both born in completely different parts of China.[[/note]]

* ''Film/NightAndDay1946'': The biopic of Cole Porter portrays his marriage to Linda as a normal, heterosexual marriage when the truth was that he was gay and she knew it. They were just friends in a marriage of convenience. *

* ''Literature/TheLegendOfAnneBonny'': As part of a HistoricalBadassUpgrade, the [[UsefulNotes/AnneBonny eponymous pirate]] scuffles with several historical men from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy she recordedly never met. She serves Governor Charles Eden as a SexySecretary and gets away with stealing from UsefulNotes/Blackbeard after he forces her to serve onboard the ''Queen Anne's Revenge'' as a marksman teacher [[SweetPollyOliver in male disguise]]. Most importantly, [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Robert Maynard]] is made her ArchEnemy as the [[YouKilledMyFather executioner of her uncle]] as well as her AbhorrentAdmirer and [[spoiler:rapist before she kills him during a raid]]. It's also Governor Woodes Rogers who marries Anne and James Bonny, though the latter does work for Rogers like in real life.

See HistoricalBadassUpgrade, HistoricalBeautyUpgrade, HistoricalHeroUpgrade, HistoricalDowngrade, HistoricalUglinessUpdate, HistoricalVillainDowngrade, HistoricalGenderFlip and HistoricalVillainUpgrade for other changes a historical person can receive in fiction.

** Agrippinilla (called Agrippina the Younger in RealLife), seduces her son, Nero, after his wife doesn't want to sleep

* Theatre/{{Amadeus}}:

** Anthony Woodville and Jane Shore, again portrayed has having a sexual relationship, were not known to have one in real life.

** Fatma, Süleyman's other sister, was married three times -- first to certain Mustafa pasha, then to Kara Mustafa, and lastly to Ibrahim pasha (not that one). Fatma is shown, at the beginning of season 4, to be unhappily married (in real life, Mustafa pasha was gay and neglected his wife)... Which she shouldn't be. She was already divorced and marrying Kara Mustafa in 1522, which in the show was season 1! At the time, Fatma wasn't even in the show.

** Servilia, a (former) mistress of Julius Caesar, and Octavia become lovers, and after Octavia accidentally tells her that her brother, Octavian and Caesar might have been formerly lovers (which is a false rumour that was started after a servant heard strange noises coming from a room were Octavian and Caesar were in together, even though Caesar was having a seizure), although Octavian denies it and claims Caesar has a "serious affliction". Servilia then instructs Octavia to ''seduce'' Octavian, and find out more about Caesar's affliction. Octavia ''does'' seduce Octavian (although he doesn't tell her anything after the incest). None of this, either Servilia's and Octavia's relationship, or Octavia's and Octavian's incest ever actually happened.
** Octavia also becomes the lover of the friend of her brother, Marcus Agrippa, and ''might'' even have a child from him, all the while she is married to Mark Antony. This also didn't happen. RealLife Octavia was the model matron of the early Roman Empire, and had no adulterous or controversial relationships. This kind of description suits the real daughter of Octavian, Julia, more.

** During Guan Yu's failed Fancheng Campaign, he dispatches messengers to get support from Meng Da and Liu Feng, only for the messengers to return and state that they were actively chased out. Guan's advisors express disgust at this, noting that this was especially vile as Meng and Liu are members of Liu Bei's family and so ought to view Guan as family. Historically, while Liu Feng was indeed Liu Bei's adopted son [[note]] he was adopted by Liu partially as part of an alliance with a powerful local family, and Liu at the time had no son of his own [[/note]], Meng Da had no such relationship with the family at all. [[note]] In addition, it wasn't so much they didn't want to send help as it was they '''couldn't''', as Guan's failure had left their own territory vulnerable and they were bracing for an attack themselves.[[/note]]

** Margaret Tudor is actually based on Princess Mary Tudor. UsefulNotes/HenryVIII did have a sister named Margaret but she was married to the King of Scotland. Mary was the one who was married off to an elderly man, but he wasn't the King of Portugal but rather the King of France.

** Flaín was the brother of Jimena's father and possibly also a distant relative of Diego Laínez. In the show they are unrelated and he arranges his son's marriage to Jimena

with him. This didn't happen in RealLife.

** Agrippinilla (called Agrippina the Younger in RealLife), seduces her son, Nero, after his wife doesn't want to sleep with him. This didn't happen in RealLife.
* ''Series/TheGreat'': In the series Peter III is portrayed as the son of UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, but in fact he was the grandson of Peter the Great.

** Margaret Tudor is actually based on Princess Mary Tudor. UsefulNotes/HenryVII did have a sister named Margaret but she was married to the King of Scotland. Mary was the one who was married off to an elderly man, but he wasn't the King of Portugal but rather the King of France.

** Mark Smeaton and George Boleyn were not known to be lovers, and it is only recently that people have been speculating about the latter's sexuality.

** Salieri was not celibate, and he was the father of eight children with and his AdaptedOut wife. The woman in the play whom he lusts after but denies himself, Caterina Cavalieri, was Salieri's mistress in real life.

When writers create HistoricalFiction, it's often [[ArtisticLicenseHistory tempting to change a few things to what they were in real life]]. Perhaps they just follow RuleOfDrama, RuleOfCool, RuleOfFunny, RuleOfRomantic, or maybe RuleOfSexy.

A big change they can make is to tell differently how two [[HistoricalDomainCharacter historical domain characters]] were related to each other, or how they interacted with each other based on their relationship, by altering the nature or dynamic of said relationship.

A common is variant is to [[PromotedToLoveInterest make people romantic partners]], even though they weren't in RealLife. This can also happen in more {{Downplayed}} versions, such as to have two characters have sex with each other, but not make them romantic partners, or have one of them lust or have a crush for the other, even though this usually ends in unrequited love, and, as said before, there is no real basis of these people ever having such thoughts. Maybe these people ''were'' in a romantic relationship in real life too, but a work portrays them much more loving and affectionate towards the other, despite that not being the case in reality.

The opposite of this variant is to change the nature of two RealLife romantic partners: it could happen that they aren't in a relationship at all in a HistoricalFiction, or they are shown to be less loving towards each other than they were in reality.

Some works change the sexuality of a character completely, making people who were straight in real life gay or bisexual, or vice versa. Thus, any lovers the character may have in fiction may be instantly unhistorical.

Writers can also change how characters are related: maybe Alice was the aunt of Bob in RealLife, but in a HistoricalFiction show she is the cousin of him, or they aren't related at all.

Writers may also alter the nature of people's friendship, making people friends even though they had no relations in reality, or perhaps they actually hated each other, or the opposite can also happen, making people enemies even though they carried no hatred for each other in real life.

** Turing probably never [[spoiler: met John Cairncross, the Soviet agent (who was a real person). And even if they met, it's highly unlikely they discovered each other's secrets]].

** The real D'Artagnan was too young to have served Louis XIII and most certainly [[spoiler: never had an affair with Queen Anne and was absolutely not the real father of Louis XIV.]]

** Although rumours circulated about all kinds of incest among the UsefulNotes/TheBorgias in RealLife, none of these have any credibility, and are mostly made up by a former husband of Lucrezia Borgia. However, in this series, Lucrezia and her brother, Cesare, are quite close to incest several times. One time, after Lucrezia admits to [[spoiler: killing Juan with her lover, Perotto]], Cesare wants to "make the rumours true" about them (of incest), and proceeds to kiss Lucrezia, who agrees, and they ''almost'' have sex, but Lucrezia's lover Perotto discovers them. Lucrezia's other brother, Juan, attempts to rape her once, and claims that he "loves her the most". And then, we have Lucrezia's ''father'' (UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI, AKA Rodrigo Borgia), who has lustful thoughts about his daughter, once going as far as ''masturbating'' to a description of her by her lover. Fortunately, he realizes his sinful thoughts and admits them to Lucrezia who quickly forgives him.

** {{UsefulNotes/Caligula}} and his sister, Drusilla are married, and they even have a baby, [[spoiler: whom Caligula, along with its mother, kills prematurely, and eats it akin to Jove]]. It's heavily disputed whether they had an incestous relationship in reality, and the latter part certainly didn't happen.

** All of Süleyman's sisters are in the show [[RelatedInTheAdaptation daughters of Ay?e Hafsa]]; while she might've given birth to some them, most certainly not all - not the ones younger than Süleyman, anyway, since, as mentioned before, at the time is was customary for men of the dynasty to stop sleeping with a concubine once she has given birth to a son.
** It's not known what relationship, if any, Hatice Sultan had with Ibrahim Pasha. They certainly weren't married - that myth was dispelled by modern historiography. Hatice sultan is correctly shown to have been a widow by the time show started, and it's not certain whether or not she was married a second time (it was either her or one of her sisters who married Çoban Mustafa Pasha). She had a daughter, Nefise, with her first husband, and might've had one or two sons with him too. Ibrahim was instead happily married to Muhsine, who was a noblewoman. This myth probably stems from the fact that Ibrahim and Muhsine's wedding included festivities that wouldn't be out of place during a wedding of a princess. This marriage and lavish festivities surrounding it were meant as a sign of sultan's favor, encouraging the old ottoman elites to accept lowborn Ibrahim into their ranks. Muhsine and Ibrahim had one child, son named Mehmed?ah, who died very young a few years after his father.
** Fatma, Süleyman's other sister, was married three times - first to certain Mustafa pasha, then to Kara Mustafa, and lastly to Ibrahim pasha (not that one). Fatma is shown, at the beginning of season 4, to be unhappily married (in real life, Mustafa pasha was gay and neglected his wife)... Which she shouldn't be. She was already divorced and marrying Kara Mustafa in 1522, which in the show was season 1! At the time, Fatma wasn't even in the show.

* ''Film/Gotti1996'': Sammy Gravano is shown killing Nicholas Scibetta, an associate of the family, via ambushing him in a warehouse and using a weapon that repeatedly jams while Scibetta begs for his life. The real-life Gravano never killed Scibetta, based on the known reports (Gravano himself alleges two other hitman committed the deed), and was so angry about Castellano ordering the hit that he initially wanted to kill Castellano himself before being calmed down by Frank DeCicco. Scibetta was also Gravano's brother-in-law, a fact that is actually referenced towards the end of the film by Gotti during their conversation in the holding cell, but Gravano himself never displays any remorse about killing a relative.

* The plot of ''Film/RRR2022'' is a WhatIf scenario where Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem __ who never had any known interaction with one another - met and formed a friendship.

* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''

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[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/RequiemOfTheRoseKing'': In this epic manga by Aya Kanno UsefulNotes/RichardIII and Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham are portrayed as lovers, while in real life both were heterosexuals.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/BridgeOfSpies:'' The RealLife Frederic Pryor has noted that his movie counterpart's romance with a German girl was created out of whole cloth.

* ''Film/DraculaUntold:'' [[AdaptedOut There's no mention whatsoever]] of Vlad Dracula's brother, [[CainAndAbel Radu the Handsome]]. As boys, they were taken hostage together by the Turks. But unlike Vlad, Radu came to support them, converted to Islam, and led the invading army in the campaign roughly corresponding to the Sultan's invasion in the film. He seems to have been [[CompositeCharacter combined with the Sultan]], who claims to be a former friend and calls Vlad his "brother".

* ''Film/{{Gladiator}}:''

* ''Film/Gotti1996:'' Sammy Gravano is shown killing Nicholas Scibetta, an associate of the family, via ambushing him in a warehouse and using a weapon that repeatedly jams while Scibetta begs for his life. The real-life Gravano never killed Scibetta, based on the known reports (Gravano himself alleges two other hitman committed the deed), and was so angry about Castellano ordering the hit that he initially wanted to kill Castellano himself before being calmed down by Frank DeCicco. Scibetta was also Gravano's brother-in-law, a fact that is actually referenced towards the end of the film by Gotti during their conversation in the holding cell, but Gravano himself never displays any remorse about killing a relative.
* ''Film/TheImitationGame:''

* ''Film/IpMan2:'' In real life, Ip Man and his wife Cheung Wing-sing were accidentally separated in 1951 due to the closure of borders between China and Hong Kong, and they effectively never saw each other again in their lives. In the film series, she remains to his side through their life until her death. Conversely, the real life Ip Man had a mistress from Shanghai who conceived an illegitimate son, Ip Siu-wah, none of which happens in the films.
* ''Film/IShotJesseJames:'' The film shows Kelley and Ford meeting around the time of Jesse James?s death, both trying to court [[LoveInterest Cynthy]]. There is no historical evidence to suggest that the two ever met each other outside of Creede, nor that they were involved in a [[LoveTriangle love triangle]] with a woman. Oddly enough, the feud over the ring is based in reality, though it was a ring for Ford himself, not a LoveInterest.
* ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven:''

* ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask:''

* ''Film/TheOtherBoleynGirl:''

* The plot of ''Film/RRR2022'' is a WhatIf scenario where Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem - who never had any known interaction with one another - met and formed a friendship.

* ''Film/YoungGuns:'' The subplot regarding Doc Spurlock's budding romance with Yen Sun, a Chinese immigrant who was [[SexSlave forcibly taken as Murphy's mistress]] and later falls in love with Doc (risking her life to stay with him during the ending siege) is completely fabricated for the film, though the situation could be seen as an apocryphal view of the (very real) prostitution of young Chinese girls in the era the film takes place. In real life, Doc was married to a Hispanic woman, Maria (Antonia) Herrera, before the war started, and there is no known historical evidence that Murphy (who, as noted above, was dying of cancer at the time the film takes place) ever had a mistress working for him.

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Literature/AfricanusTrilogy:''

* ''Literature/AlexanderTrilogy:''

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

* ''Series/TheBorgias:'' Giovanni Sforza abuses and rapes Lucrezia, when he actually ignored her and only consummated the marriage fairly late into it in real life.
* ''Series/ElCid2020:''

* ''Series/MagnificentCentury:''

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

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!!Example subpages:

* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'': Due to being a fictionalised version of history, this comes up quite a bit.
** For some reason, Guan Ping (eldest son of Guan Yu) is introduced as Guan Yu's adopted son as opposed to his flesh-and-blood son as in history. Among numerous theories for this, one suggestion is that this was done so Guan Ping could be introduced as an adult and take part in Guan Yu's adventures, while another is that as The Romance also incorporated various folktales, it's possible this was a folktale from the region that helped link the legendary Guan Yu to local families.
** Ling Tong is introduced seeking vengeance against Gan Ning for his father Ling Cao (who Gan killed in combat). Ling would later be rescued by Gan, leading him to forgive Gan and becoming FireForgedFriends. Historically, Ling Tong hated Gan Ning till the day he died, partially motivated by the fact Gan was an unrepentant pirate and murderer known to raid their own territory ForTheEvulz. It was only the direct command of their liege lord Sun Quan that prevented Ling from taking any opportunity to kill Gan.
** Zhou Yu is portrayed as being insanely jealous of Zhuge Liang, even plotting to have him killed. Historically, during Zhou's heyday Zhuge Liang was simply too unimportant to have bothered with (Zhou was the highly accomplished and admired chief commander of Sun Quan's military forces as well as his chief advisor, while Zhuge was just an advisor to a landless wandering warlord), and was only notable for being the younger brother of Zhou's friend and colleague Zhuge Jin.
** In the novel, Liu Bei and Sun Quan's younger sister Lady Sun are married as part of a political alliance. Lady Sun falls in love with Liu due to his goodness and nobility, and when she's forced to return to her homeland when the alliance falls apart she's inconsolable. She's mentioned as dying not long after the death of Liu Bei himself, the implication being DeathByDespair. Historically, Liu is mentioned as being terrified of Lady Sun, partially because she always had a group of fully armed and armoured warrior maidens outside her living quarters.
** The novel makes Xu Huang and Guan Yu close friends (despite them barely sharing any scenes together). This makes it all the more dramatic when Xu is the one who leads the army that shatters Guan's forces and sends him into the retreat that ends with his death. Historically, Xu was famous for being such a ConsummateProfessional he didn't have '''any''' close friends, even with men he'd worked with for years like Cao Ren or Zhang Liao.
** Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi are portrayed as arch foes, with the latter half of the novel revolving around their battles. Historically, Sima Yi only fought Zhuge Liang '''twice''', and Zhuge was instead repeatedly repelled by other generals such as Cao Zhen or Hao Zhao. The second time Sima and Zhuge fought was coincidentally the campaign where Zhuge passed away, and so it's suspected that Sima was given the role of Wei commander so as to make their single confrontation the climax of a long rivalry instead.
** Jiang Wei is introduced as a talented young officer Zhuge Liang explicitly wants to recruit as his protégé, and later trains him as his successor. After Zhuge's passing, Jiang tries to carry on his will and invade the northern Wei Kingdom. Historically, while Jiang was recruited by Zhuge following one of the Northern Campaigns, he was simply one of Zhuge's cronies and hangers on. He did eventually succeed Zhuge as chancellor, but only after the leadership of Jiang Wan and Fei Yi. He also proved to be incompetent in the role, as while Jiang Wan and Fei Yi opted to focus on internal affairs (leading to what was described as Shu's Golden Age), Jiang Wei launched repeated failed invasions that drained Shu's resources and slowly turned the populace against the government. [[note]] While Zhuge Liang's campaigns were also failures, Zhuge understood KnowWhenToFoldEm and at least minimised damage to the Shu army, while Jiang operated under AttackAttackAttack. The most egregious example is when the city of Chencang surrendered without a fight: instead of consolidating those gains Jiang pushed on, was defeated, and lost even Chencang because he didn't bother to bolster its defenses.[[/note]]

See HistoricalBadassUpgrade, HistoricalBeautyUpgrade, HistoricalHeroUpgrade, HistoricalDowngrade, HistoricalUglinessUpdate, HistoricalVillainDowngrade, and HistoricalVillainUpgrade for other changes a historical person can receive in fiction.

!!Indices: Main/HistoricalDomainCharacter, HollywoodHistory, AlternateHistoryTropes, MediaAdaptationTropes, LoveTropes, FamilyTropes, FriendshipTropes, AttractionTropes, MarriageTropes, RuleOfRomantic