Hot Consort

When she is your wife, it certainly is "good to be the king".

"She's the kind of woman you'd expect to see as the beautiful consort to the corrupt generalissimo of a collapsing Third World country."

— Good Omens, on War

Power is Sexy. But nothing says the sexy part has to be one-sided.

When you rule a country, you have a choice of anyone you want to be your spouse. Not to mention that if power tends to corrupt, alongside being sexy, then women are often attracted to such corruption anyway. Must be married to them, or something close enough for tax purposes. Also applies to elected presidents, powerful prime ministers, and all-round tyrants.

Note: Being hot is not a guarantee against the husband having a mistress.

Truth in Television — though not nearly as common as one may think because most royal marriages were arranged dynasty marriages where the bride was from another country rather than the ruler's subjects and her family mattered more than her looks. Still, it was not unheard of, with many princesses being genuinely hot (or at least with much more resources to pour into their good looks) and sometimes a concubine or a mistress (who was picked for her looks) ascending to consort or even ruler status. In a few cases, the ruler even held an actual Beauty Contest to pick themselves a wife!

See also Dark Mistress.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Empress Marianne in Code Geass was this to her husband, Emperor Charles, before her death.
• Alielle from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World is the cute young concubine of Princess Fatora.
• Emperor Daibazaal of GoLion had a concubine who looked a lot like Princess Fala. Unfortunately, he ends up having her killed. It turns out she is Altean, like Fala, and before she was executed bore him his heir, Prince Imperial Sincline.
• All the male love interests in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, although, in the manga, Hanon and Rina acknowledge that they'll have to eventually leave their human boyfriends to rule their countries rather than have both.
• Portgas D. Rouge in One Piece to the King of Pirates himself, Gol. D. Roger.
  • Also Kinderella to Wapol, Sarie Nantoukette to Stelly and Queen Otohime to King Neptune. Several human princes and kings at the Reverie show quite a bit of interest in having Otohime's daughter Princess Shirahoshi as their Hot Consort.
    • Following the coverpage with Makino's baby is hinted that Makino is Emperor Shanks' secret Hot Consort.
• Gender Flipped version in Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, where the premise is that only one in four men survives to adulthood in Jidaigeki Japan. Most of the male POV characters are chosen as consorts for the female shogun (and particularly attractive men can make a fortune by hiring out their stud services).
• Henti and Nakia were this to King Suppiliniuma in Red River (1995). The main character Yuri Ishtar must pose as the concubine of Prince Kail and by the end of the story she becomes his legal wife.
• Mamoru/Endymion to Neo Queen Serenity in Sailor Moon. While his title is king, it's clear that his wife is in charge and he is her supporting spouse. It makes sense when realizing as Endymion, he was prince to one planet while Serenity was princess to the rest of solar system, so if their kingdoms were united in their marriage, his domain would be absorbed into hers, not the other way around.

Comic Books

• The Darkness: Past Darkness-wielders that crowned themselves as kings and warlords had the power to spontaneously create their ideal women from Darkness to serve as concubines. This was a necessity because if they mated with human females, they would die when their powers passed to their (male) children, whereas female Darklings wouldn't have such a problem. Turns out this was a deliberate attempt by the Darkness entity to create an Eldritch Abomination devoid of any human traits.
• Fantastic Four: The Invisible Woman has been this mostly in alternate realities where she settles down with Namor and becomes Queen of Atlantis. As for the mainstream universe, she has been this to Doctor Doom a few times such as in Secret Wars (2015) where she is explicitly referred as the God-Emperor's consort.
• The Punisher Presents Barracuda: Wanda is a former porn star who's the consort to Leopoldo Luna, the president of Santa Morricone. Her husband being Ambiguously Gay to the point of falling for Barracuda's crossdressing buddy Fifty, she's slept with every man in the palace.
• Wonder Woman: In most continuities save the New 52 long before Diana was born her Queen grandmother's hot consort was the scantly clad war god Ares and they had a few daughters together including Diana's mother Queen Hippolyta.
• X-Men: Storm as the Queen of Wakanda for the duration of her marriage to Black Panther, as one of the most renowned beauties in the Marvel Universe.
• X-Wing Rogue Squadron: During X-Wing: The Warrior Princess, Rightfully Returning Princess Plourr meets her cousin/fiance for the first time in decades and finds that he's become a Fabio type—tall, muscular, long flowing hair. He's also utterly devoted to her, and despite sharing some of the royal blood never takes the title Prince or Emperor.
• Young Avengers: With Teddy Altman’s ascension as emperor to the new Kree-Skrull empire, and their marriage(s) in the Marvel comics, Billy Kaplan became this with the title Prince-Consort. On top of being a magical powerhouse, plenty of people in and out of universe agree that he’s a Cute Witch.

Fan Works

• In Mass Effect's Crucibleverse, Miranda Lawson eventually got together with Adrien Victus, the Primarch of Palaven, then gave birth to his son Tiberius and by the end of the first book, she was his wife in all but name even as she kept refusing his proposal. It wasn't until the second book that it revealed that the reason she did so was to not become a burden to Adrien and their son with her past as Cerberus. Once they got over that huddle, she officially married him but still remained mostly behind the scene, working with General Attilius or building PR for the Hybrids instead of helping him to rule directly.

Literature

• Men who marry the Princesses/Queens of A Brother's Price are not called princes or kings, but consorts. Keifer was chosen because the elder princesses were smitten by his looks. Jerin has more going for him, but Ren does emphasize his beauty.
• Eilonwy is this at the end of The Chronicles of Prydain to the newly appointed High King Taran.
• Chronicles of the Kencyrath has a M'lady Kallystine, who's a strange example. Yes, she's sexy, and yes, she's the Highlord's consort—who he really, really doesn't want! They're together via Altar Diplomacy, and she's The Vamp. When she became his consort, a few years before the story starts, she actively seduced him for political reasons. He knew perfectly well she was doing that, but she managed to seduce him anyways—though he came to hate her, and tried hard to avoid her.
• In Diana Wynne Jones's book Deep Secret, the protagonist meets High Lady Alexandra, one of the least important consorts to an emperor with dozens of wives and mistresses. Given how beautiful and intelligent she is, he speculates that after all his political marriages were accomplished, the emperor started picking ones like her for his own amusement.
• Dune:
  • Paul marries the emperor's daughter but also has Chani, who is basically his wife in everything but name, and she is his wife by Fremen reckoning. This includes Chani being the only person he sleeps with.
  • Paul's mother Jessica is this to her husband Leto. Her looks aren't the only reason for this, though.
• Legacy of the Dragokin:
  • Britannian law says there can only be one monarch which means Kalak does little except look handsome next to Daniar.
  • Defied for Rana. Traditionally she would have been this but Finn changed the law so she can rule with him instead of next to him.
• Arwen of The Lord of the Rings was considered to be the reincarnation (in looks) of her distant ancestor Lúthien Tinúviel who was one to be the most beautiful women in the world at the time, and eventually became the queen of Aragorn, aka King Elessar.
• The (non-ruling) queen of Kuiccihan in "No Need for a Core?" is a very attractive older woman despite having seven children, the youngest of which is sixteen. Just don't mistake her status of non-ruling as not having power, especially given her role in ensuring that all of her children have been trained to be certified badasses.
• As noted in the film section, Buttercup in The Princess Bride. Humperdinck sought out the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife and got her.
• In The Royal Diaries book Elisabeth, The Princess Bride, the Emperor defies his mother in his choice of who he will marry because of Elisabeth's beauty and spirited nature.
• A Song of Ice and Fire is set in a feudal pseudo-medieval setting and thus has a few examples.
  • The stunningly beautiful Cersei Lannister is married to the fat, unattractive lark King Robert Baratheon. However, they were a Model Couple when they got married, before Robert let himself go. Deconstructed, as they both despise each other and never sleep together unless Robert is drunk.
  • Later, Margaery Tyrell, who's also a reputed beauty, fulfills this role for Renly at first, and then to Joffrey and is currently lined up to perform a hat trick with Tommen. It helps that, like Cersei, she comes from a rich and powerful family.
  • Jeyne Westerling, whom Catelyn considers a very pretty girl, becomes Robb's consort in the third book due to an Honorable Marriage Proposal.
• The Sunne in Splendour: Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward IV, is this. It is her stunning beauty that drew the young Edward to her and why he married her in secret, though it causes him a world of trouble. It's the same historical event that inspired The White Queen (see below).
• The White Queen:
  • From the moment King Edward lays eyes on Elizabeth Woodville, he is drawn to her and wants to have her even though her family is of low standing. At her coronation, the Neville sisters talk about how beautiful she is.
  • When King Richard sees Elizabeth's daughter, Elizabeth of York, he says that she has grown beautiful. She goes on to marry the next king, Henry VII, who, coincidentally, had overthrown Richard.
• The Wheel of Time
  • Rand al'Thor ends up in a polygamous relationship with three super-hot women—Elayne, Aviendha and Min—as his wives/consorts.
  • Lews Therin Telamon, Dragon Reborn and Lord of Morning, had his pick of this trope. He rejected Lanfear (one of the most beautiful and powerful, though completely egomaniacal, women of the Age of Legends) for Ilyena (equally beautiful and not about to go over to the Shadow). Naturally, Lanfear is a little resentful. Even more delusional, but hey, that's why Lews Therin didn't stick it in the crazy. She still thinks that she's this trope to the current Dragon, and occasionally tries to warn off or kill the women he's interested in.

Live-Action TV

• In Blackadder Back and Forth, King Edmund III is married to gorgeous Maid Marian (played by Kate Moss). Lampshaded in the ending theme:
  At last, a king who looks the part
  At last, a queen who looks good naked.
• A gender-inverted version in Blake's 7. In her introductory episode, Supreme Commander Servalan is mentioned as having a highly 'decorative' staff. At least one of these handsome officers is strongly implied to be her lover.
• Borgia: Rodrigo Borgia—Pope Alexander VI—has his mistress Giulia Farnese, known as "la Bella"—the most beautiful woman in Rome.
• In Chuck, Costa Gravas is a Banana Republic ruled by the Communist Premier Allejandro Goya after a coup in the 70s. His wife is shown to be a hot Spicy Latina. Subverted in that they were together even before the coup. After she attempts to overthrow him due to their marriage going sour, they reconcile, and he makes her Secretary of State.
• In Doctor Who, when the Master takes over Earth in "The Last of the Time Lords", he has a sexy wife. It being the Master, the relationship was (probably) not sexual and she has a few issues.
  • River Song was one of these in Peter Capaldi's second Christmas special, and not for the Doctor.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Queen Cersei Lannister for King Robert Baratheon, before his "hunting accident."
  • Margaery Tyrell for King Renly Baratheon and later King Joffrey Baratheon… and even later, King Tommen Baratheon. Incidentally, she's played by Natalie Dormer, who also played the aforementioned Anne Boleyn on The Tudors.
  • Jeyne Westerling—replaced in this show by Talisa Maegyr of Volantis, an equally hot Essosi lady—for King Robb Stark.
  • Sultry and sexually-adventurous Ellaria Sand is Oberyn Martell's wife in all but name.
• Magnificent Century has more than enough beautiful consorts in harems:
  • Hurrem is the best known one. She is the Ms. Fanservice of the show, having the most fancervice-y scenes. Ibrahim choses her for Suleyman based on her beauty, and Hurrem herself is aware of this, seducing Suleyman while dancing for him, and making her way to the Golden Path, aka, the Sultan's bed. Even decades after her death, she is is still remembered for her beauty and intelligence.
  • And before her it was Mahidevran. Her name means "one who is always beautiful", and is a classic Raven Hair, Ivory Skin beauty. Unfortunately for her, Suleyman fell out of love with her.
  • Hafsa Sultan, Suleyman's own mother was this for Sultan Selim I. In a flashback shown about how the two have met, Selim was taken aback by Hafsa's beautiful black eyes.
  • Nurbanu, who is even more of a Femme Fatale than Hurrem was in her youth. She seduces Selm II by dancing privately for him and has sex with him immediately. After that, she become his favorite concubine, and latter Haseki Sultan.
  • Its sequel, Magnificent Century: Kösem, has the titular Kosem. She starts as the beautiful and innocent Anastasia. Sultan Ahmet falls in love with her innocence. Once she starts to grow into the powerful Haseki Kosem Sultan, she starts to wear more revealing and flattering dresses, favoring blue and red dresses. Even after years and multiple pregnancies, she is still graceful and slim, and has multiple men falling for her other than Ahmed, and even women comment how beautiful she stayed over the years.
• As of series 4 of Merlin, Guinevere has become Arthur's Queen Consort. The position comes with a considerable upgrade in hair, make-up, wardrobe, and jewellery.
• The Stargate SG-1 series begins with Apophis raiding Earth and Abydos, looking for beautiful women he can implant with his queen Goa'uld.
• Star Trek. In the evil Mirror Universe, an attractive female member of the Enterprise crew is the "Captain's Woman."
• Anne Boleyn on The Tudors, providing the page image.
• Victoria: One of the many, many qualities that recommends Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Victoria upon their meeting is that she finds him extremely attractive. (Historically accurate—records, including Victoria's own diaries, make it indisputable that the relationship between Victoria and Albert had an intensely physical dimension to it.)

Mythology and Religion

• In general, the partners of deities, rulers or heroes tend to be described as uncommonly beautiful.
• In The Bible:
  • King David had many wives, but Bathsheba started as his lover and mistress and he was immediately attracted to her beauty while she was bathing. Abishag the Shunnamite became David's personal attendant when he became old and he couldn't get warm with many blankets.
  • The subject of Song of Songs, a poem entirely about love and lust, traditionally composed by David's son King Solomon.
  • Esther became this to the King of Persia.
• In Classical Mythology:
  • The king and queen of the gods were Zeus and Hera. The latter's beauty was only rivaled by Athena's and Aphrodite's, but that didn't stop Zeus from taking many lovers.
  • With the Nymphs being an entire race of unfathomably beautiful women, it's no surprise that the first wives of all three of the original male Olympians were Nymphs. Though out of all of these romances, only Poseidon and Amphitrite lasted—Zeus absorbed his first wife Metis due to becoming paranoid about her child overthrowing him, while Hades' first wife Leuce eventually passed on and was commemorated with a white poplar tree.
  • Helen was the World's Most Beautiful Woman, competed over by all the Greek kings who finally swore an oath to help her husband protect her. Thus, her abduction (or taking off with) by Prince Paris of Troy (who judged the beauty of the three goddesses above) became the excuse for the Trojan War.
  • Despite being disliked by the other Olympians, Ares was still considered quite handsome and he acted as the consort of Queen Otrere of the Amazons and had three or four daughters with her.
• In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the title character is uncommonly handsome and the goddess of love and fertility herself tries to take him as a lover, but he rejects her. Much trouble ensues.
• Queen Guinevere of Arthurian Legend was desired by many knights, leading to some kidnappings and rescues and a love triangle that ultimately helped bring down King Arthur's court.

Tabletop Games

• In BattleTech, Katrina Steiner, Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth, made an interesting proposal to the other house lords. Only Hanse "The Fox" Davion, First Prince of the Federated Suns, showed any interest. To cement their new alliance, Katrina offered her only daughter, Melissa◊, as bride to Hanse (who was nearly 30 years older than Melissa). They made it work, and had five children. The eldest, Victor, would symbolize the union of the two realms and would-be heir to both. Hanse also offered up the Capellan Confederation as a prize to his bride during their wedding reception, prompting the Fourth Succession War.
• In Dungeons & Dragons, the Drow have a god for this trope- Keptolo, the Exalted Consort. Keptolo is worshipped as a god of drow masculinity, which traditionally includes being really sexy and good in bed along with being a clever socialite.

Video Games

• Battle Chess has the King as an old man, and the Queen as a young and pretty - as well as voluptuous in the Enhanced version (which even gives her a Supermodel Strut when she moves) and the 3D remake◊.
• Crusader Kings offers the player the chance to both be and have many over the course of hundreds of years.
• Dragon Age: Inquisition:
  • In the Trespasser expansion, if the Inquisitor romanced Cassandra and she is named the new Divine, they become a chaste version of this. They never are able to officially be together, but everyone can tell they love each other and remain close. Their relationship goes on to inspire ballads.
  • On the other hand, if Leiliana becomes the new Divine and she's in a relationship with a still-living Grey Warden from Origins, she will decide Screw the Rules, I Make Them! and declare that clerics are allowed to enter relationships and marry, and thus she will continue her romance with the Warden (and it's definitely not chaste).
• Dragon Age: Origins:
  • Anora was this for King Cailan. The tie-in novels indicate that Cailan's mother, Rowan, was likewise this for his father Maric. In addition to being hot, both women are politically savvy and very smart. Anora can also potentially be this for her brother-in-law Alistair.
  • Depending on the player's choices at the Landsmeet, the player character can become one of these, too: a Male Human Noble Warden can marry Anora, while a Female Human Noble Warden can marry Alistair. Alternatively, a dwarf or elf female player character can become Alistair's mistress if he's been hardened.
• Fire Emblem has many, many cases, often crossing into Battle Couple, Bodyguard Crush, and/or Childhood Friend Romance. Not ALL of these cases are set in stone—it mostly depends on the game strategies:
  • Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem: For Marth, Caeda. For Hardin, Nyna—but this one ends up horribly.
  • Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia: In the backstory, King Lima IV invoked the trope by forcing the World's Most Beautiful Woman, the priestess Liprica, to marry him. In the game itself, Liprica and Lima's daughter Anthiese/Celica and Alm ultimately become this to each other, doubling as the Ruling Couple of the new Kingdom of Valentia.
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: For Emperor Arvis, Deirdre... but she was Brainwashed and Crazy and he didn't know she was his half-sister. For Emperor Seliph, potentially almost all of the girls but Lana and Larcei get more chance. Also, any girl who romances a guy who gets to reign over the family's lands.
  • In Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Nanna becomes this to Leif, provided she doesn't die in the game. If she perishes, Leif stays single for the rest of his life.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade: For Eliwood, it can be either Ninian, Fiora or Lyndis. For Hector, either Farina, Florina or Lyndis. It all depends on the support system. In the backstory, Helene is this for Desmond... but they're VERY unhappy.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade: Either Sue, Lilina, Lalum, Cecilia, Sophia or Shanna, for Roy. (Lilina and him also manage to unite Ostia and Pherae in a single territory). Juno is this for Zealot in his full ending, since he's crowned as the King of Ilia in it.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: For Ephraim, Tana or L'Arachel. (And vice-versa in L'Arachel's cases, as she's the future Queen of Rausten by birthright.) For Innes, either L'Arachel (but see above), Vanessa or Eirika. For Joshua, either Marisa or Natasha.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: For Elincia, Geoffrey. For Micaiah, Sothe. Almedha was this to Ashnard, but it's way more complicated.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening: For Chrom, either: a girl Avatar (default name: Robin), Sumia, Sully, Maribelle, or Olivia. All double as princesses and Action Moms, as this doesn't mean either lady will leave the battlefield after marrying and mothering Lucina (though her own predestined children ^note Morgan, Cynthia, Kjelle, Brady or Inigo, respectively technically ain't born... yet.)
    • Subverted with Lucina, since the one who will eventually become the Queen/Exalt of Ylisse is the one from the Good Future and not the one who's recruited into the group. (And it's all but stated that there's no way to return to the Bad Future itself). Might be played straight if the Lucina from the Good Future grows up, is crowned as Exalt and chooses a good-looking dude as her consort. And this may be the case for the Lucina of the Future Past DLC maps, if she does the same after recovering her lands from Grima with her friends and the help of the playable characters.
    • Girl!Robin subverts the trope if she marries either Walhart, Yen'fay or Gangrel, as she falls for either them after they have left their respective lands upon defeat. (And in the case of Yen'Fay, he comes from the Bad Future as well.) But if she goes for the West-Khan of Ferox, Basilio, she might play it straight. The same goes to a boy!Robin who marries the Ferox East-Khan Flavia and maybe one who marries the Fallen Princess of Chon'sin Say'ri (should she restore Chon'sin and reign over it).
  • Fire Emblem Fates: Any girl who marries Crown Prince Xander of Nohr or Crown Prince Ryoma of Hoshido will probably become this by the end of the game. When the Avatar of either gender becomes the King/Queen of Valla in the Golden Path, then there's pretty much anyone he or she marries... plus Niles and Rhajat as Bisexual Options.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • Whoever ends up marrying Edelgard or Dmitri at the end of their relevant storylines, and whoever marries Petra. Potentially subverted by Byleth should she marry Dmitri, as she is made into the new Archbishop of the Church of Seiros, meaning she holds arguably equal rank with Dmitri. Completely averted at the end of the Azure Wind route, as Claude steps down as the Alliance's leader at its end. Though should Petra marry them, then the situation becomes reversed with her as Queen of Brigid.
    • Whoever Byleth marries at the end of Silver Snow route. Byleth becomes the new leader of the United Kingdom of Fodlan, making their spouse a hot consort.
• Ky Kiske from Guilty Gear is married to Dizzy (unofficially anyways).
• This is a minor plot point in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Princess Mipha had been in love with resident Chick Magnet Link and had been planning on asking for his hand in marriage before she was killed. Convincing the royal adviser Muzu that Link was her beloved via The Girl Who Fits This Slipper is what allows Link to aid Sidon in stopping Vah Ruta. Given that Zelda is also confirmed to be in love with Link, he might still end up as a consort after the events of the game.
• In Medieval II: Total War, this is a possibility, although pretty random. If you use cheats, though, you can give any of your noblemen the "WifeIsCharming" stat (maxed out to 3), which not only increases the nobleman's popularity but also the chance of him producing children.
• Some of the endings to the Princess Maker games have her being a consort in some way. Princess Maker 2 (the better known one):
  • Has the Daughter being able to marry: the Dirty Old Man King, the much younger and more handsome Prince (doubling as Childhood Friend Romance since they meet as kids though she only knows him as a cadet of the realm)... or Lucifon, the King of Hell. And regarding Lucifon, she does this by free choice, should both her Sin and her Charm be high enough. Apparently he's a pretty nice guy/demon, all things considered.
  • This can also be inverted if she's appointed as Ruling Queen by the King... but also qualifies to marry the aforementioned Prince. Now she rules over the Kingdom AND has married the once legitimate heir, who adores the Hell out of her.
• Queen Elisif of Skyrim was this for her late husband, High King Torygg. She's colloquially known as "Elisif the Fair," and by all accounts, they were very Happily Married.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Princess Ursa never did get to be Fire Lady, since she was banished before Fire Lord Ozai's coronation for assassinating the previous Fire Lord with poison (in exchange for Zuko's life), and therefore putting Ozai on the throne. She would have been this, though. In the Search comics, it is shown that Ozai primarily liked Ursa for her looks, even though it was also an Arranged Marriage based on her bloodline. She only became the equivalent of a queen mother (titled as “Lady”) during her son’s reign, without ever having been a consort during her husband’s reign.
  • It's heavily implied by the show's finale that Mai is set to become one for Zuko; they are currently broken up in the comic book continuation, but clearly still harbor feelings for each other. It's also known from the Sequel Series that Zuko has at least one child, a daughter named Izumi who succeeds him as Fire Lord, at some point.
• Queen Guenivere is this for Arthur in King Arthur & the Knights of Justice. When first mentioned by Merlin, he describes her as being the personification of beauty and love.

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