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(#4) Mary Carleton Escaped Punishment By Accusing Her Third Husband Of Lying To Her
When Mary Carleton was thrown in jail for bigamy for the second time, it looked unlikely that she would escape again. But Mary was crafty, and she came up with a defense that eventually won over the court and made her famous in London.
After the anonymous letter exposed Mary as a bigamist, her husband John Carleton had her arrested. But while she was in jail, Mary accused John of lying to her. Instead of admitting her con, Mary accused Carleton of pretending to be a wealthy aristocrat. She even sued him for not being as rich as he promised.
During her trial, Mary pled not guilty and said to John, "You cheated me and I you. You told me you were a Lord and I told you I was a Princess; and I think I fitted you!" She laughed and mocked her husband during the trial, and the act convinced the jury to let Mary go free.
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(#9) Unlike Your Typical Black Widow, Mary Carleton Didn't Wait For Her Husbands To Die
Mary Carleton earned the nickname "The Grey Widow" because she wasn't actually a widow at all—she didn't wait for her husbands to die before remarrying. In fact, no one knows how many times Mary tricked men into marrying her, only to steal their money and run away. The men may have been too embarrassed to come forward with their stories. But Mary spent over ten years ensnaring and robbing London's wealthy before authorities caught her.
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(#7) The Grey Widow's First Marriage Seemed Completely Normal
Mary Carleton didn't have a noble background at all. She was born in Canterbury, and her father was a fiddler. When Mary grew up, she married a shoemaker named Thomas Stedman. The marriage was not a happy one. Mary gave birth to two children, but both died in infancy. According to the Newgate Calendar, a biographical book of criminals written in the eighteenth century, Mary was unhappy because her husband wasn't wealthy. He couldn't "support her in the splendour she always aimed at," so Mary ran away.
Instead of reconciling with her first husband, Mary decided to remarry. This time, she chose a surgeon in Dover, but Mary's illegal second marriage was soon uncovered by the authorities, and she was arrested. During her first trial, Mary was able to escape punishment because the court could not prove she was a bigamist.
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(#12) Mary Carleton Was Imprisoned Multiple Times, But She Kept Getting Out
Mary Carleton's first brush with the law came in 1658. She had just left her first husband and married a second—which was a crime. Bigamy was a serious offense in the seventeenth century, and since legal divorce was almost impossible, Mary Carleton was certainly not the first person arrested for the crime.
But bigamy was notoriously difficult to prove. When Mary was arrested in 1658, she was acquitted because her first husband, a shoemaker, did not appear in court against her. While in London, Mary decided to marry for a third time, and again she was acquitted because of insufficient evidence. If Mary's first two encounters with the law convinced her that she could get away with anything, she would soon learn that she was wrong.
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(#5) Mary Even Starred In A Play About Her Life
Mary Carleton wasn't shy about the spotlight. After she escaped prison the second time for marrying John Carleton, she became instantly famous. Even the diarist Samuel Pepys visited Mary and admired her "wit and spirit." Eventually, Mary used her fifteen minutes of fame to venture into theater. Mary even starred in a play based on her own life called The German Princess. As Mary said in character, "You think me a bold cheat... [but] which of you are not?"
Mary's turn as an actress was so successful that men began clamoring for her attention. She received valuable gifts, jewels, and money. But she couldn't leave behind the polygamous lifestyle, so she eventually married one of her admirers. Unsurprisingly, she ran away with all of his money while he was in a drunken stupor.
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(#2) Mary Carleton Fooled Everyone Into Thinking She Was A German Princess
She already had a criminal record in 1663, but Mary Carleton couldn't miss the chance to return to London. And with the riches from her noble German lover, Mary was able to return in style.
Mary used her wealth to fool people into thinking she was a German princess. Thanks to some well-placed tears, Mary was easily able to convince London's wealthy classes that she was the poor, orphaned Princess van Wolway from Cologne. In her tale, she had fled to London to escape a possessive lover. By flashing the jewelry she'd stolen from Germany, along with forged letters from abroad, Mary convinced everyone that she was a real princess. Mary used her disguise to nab her third husband, John Carelton.
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Mary Carlton called herself a German princess, she was a celebrity during the London Revival. She was keen to tell about her life as a "German princess" as the daughter of the Earl of Cologne, despite the fact that she was born in Mary Modes and the daughter of a Canterbury violinist. After her lie was revealed, she was tried in 1663 for bigamy and has successfully escaped from prison many times and even convinced the judge and jury to believe her lies.
The random tool brings us to know more about this shameless fraudster in 17th century London, there are 13 things about Mary Carlton who used the fake identity as the "German princess" to deceive many men and obtain money.
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