Top 4 Families With Tragic Histories

Friday, June 29, 2012, 16:46 [IST]

Every one of us has a family history. It basically comprises of facts like where we came from, our kin members so on and so forth. However, there are some famous families across the world whose history is written in blood. These family histories are strewn with tragic stories that are at once bizarre and pathetic.

Top 4 Families With Tragic History:

The Tudor Dynasty: The Tudors were probably the most famous royal family to rule England. All the credit goes to their great (literally great as he weighted over 100 kgs) King Henry VIII. This giant king was famous not only for his tyrannies as a ruler but, also for his astonishing capacity for marriages. He married 6 times during his lifetime. As the Church does not allow a man to remarry while his wife is alive, he chopped off the heads of his wives if they refused to leave silently. The story of his romance with Anne Boleyn is famous as one of the most tragic stories in history. Henry VIII deserted his first wife to marry Anne Boleyn but finally sent her to the gallows as she could not give him a son.

The Kennedy Family: This American political family has the most tragic history ever. They are blessed with wealth, power and fame yet, fate claims some one Kennedy after another. The most famous tragedy in the string of unfortunate events was US President John. F. Kennedy's assassination while he was campaigning for the second term Presidentship in 1963. 5 years later JFK's brother, Robert 'Bobby' Kennedy followed the suit. He was shot dead just after his acceptance speech as the new President! 35 years later, JFK's son Jr. John Kennedy died in a plane crash along with his wife. Can a family istory really get any more unfortunate?

The Gandhis: The Gandhi-Nehru clan is like an Indian counterpart of the tragic Kennedy family. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She was also India's first and only woman prime minister. The first to die in this unfortunate family was Indira Gandhi's younger son Sanjay Gandhi who passed away in a plane crash in 1980. The next in line was Mrs Gandhi herself; she was assassinated by her own guards in 1984. Seven years later, her elder son Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber while he was conducting election campaigns. Political deaths has bloodied the history of this family.

The Plaths-Hughes: This family has a history of suicide and depression. Sylvia Plath was an American poet and writer. She is famous for her greatly destructive poetry that gave a new direction to modern poetry. Plath was married to fellow American poet Ted Hughes. When Hughes left her to run away with their neighbour's wife Assia Wevill, Plath was left to fend for herself and her 2 children. She committed suicide by putting her head into the gas oven in 1963. Eventually, Assia Wevill, went one step further by gassing herself and her 4 year old daughter Shura 5 years later. The series of tragic stories has ended with Plath's son Nickolas Hughes Hanging himself in 2009.