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(#1) After Escaping From Prison, Mary Carleton Went To Cologne And Reinvented Herself As A German Princess
In her twenties, Mary Carleton was thrown in jail for bigamy because she abandoned her first husband to marry a wealthy surgeon. But after escaping prison with an acquittal, Mary decided to leave England and travel to the city of Cologne. Mary was already a criminal, but Germany gave her the chance to reinvent herself—and it all started with an affair with a much older German nobleman.
Mary's lover was generous. He gave her "several fine and valuable jewels," "a gold chain," and "large sums of money." But when he pressed for her hand in marriage, Mary skipped town, taking the gifts and money with her. After several years away, Mary decided to return to London, where she pretended to be a German princess.
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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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(#3) Mary's Plot Unraveled Because Of An Anonymous Letter
Mary used letters to fool men into thinking her stolen identities were real. But an anonymous letter nearly destroyed her life after Mary wed John Carleton in her disguise as a German princess. Apparently not everyone had fallen for Mary's disguise. Her husband received an anonymous letter exposing Mary. It said, "She has already married several men in our county of Kent, and afterwards made off with all the money she could get into her hands."
When Carleton read the letter, he flew into a rage and had Mary arrested. It was the second time she'd been thrown in jail for the crime of bigamy.
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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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(#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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(#6) Mary Pretended To Be A Rich Virgin, And Men Fell For It
There is only one known physical description of Mary Carleton; someone who met her said, "She has high breasts, a very graceful appearance, and speaks several languages fluently." It's no surprise that Mary was alluring and attractive. She was also an amazing actress, able to fool dozens of men—and even some women—about her true identity.
Well into her twenties, when Mary Carleton had already been married at least four times, she disguised herself as a rich virgin heiress. She recycled her story as the German Princess and claimed she was fleeing from a suitor who her father wanted her to marry. The story netted several new suitors, who Mary promptly robbed and abandoned.
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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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(#8) Mary's Elaborate Plots Involved Forged Letters
After Mary Carleton was famous, she still used disguises to trick London's men into giving her money. And one of her most popular disguises was that of a rich virgin heiress. In order to convince men she was wealthy, Mary had an accomplice mail her letters with tales about her family and their wealth.
One time, Mary used a nosy landlady to her advantage. The landlady found the letters and instantly set Mary up with her nephew, not realizing the trap. Mary took advantage, arranging for a new letter to arrive that falsely claimed her brother died, leaving her an enormous inheritance. Because of the money, Mary's father supposedly wanted her to marry a man she hated. Mary's new lover, the landlady's nephew, instantly proposed. Mary stole all of his money and left him heartbroken.
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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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(#10) The Grey Widow Wasn't Working Alone
Mary Carleton didn't work alone. She had a number of accomplices, including a maid who helped her steal money, friends who forged letters about her fake wealthy family, and a landlady who Mary double-crossed in Cologne. That landlady was helping Mary fleece the rich German man who wanted to marry her. But when he proposed, Mary tricked her accomplice, the landlady, to rush off and hire her a carriage.
As soon as the landlady left, Mary broke open the chest containing all the gifts from the German, which she was supposed to share with the landlady. But Mary "was resolved this time to have all the booty to herself," so she stole it and ran back to England. Not surprisingly, a con-artist like Mary Carleton didn't make a very good partner in crime.
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(#11) The Grey Widow Made Many Powerful Enemies
Mary Carleton always targeted wealthy men. And when she stole their money and spurned their romantic advances, the men were often bitter and angry. The person who sent an anonymous letter to Mary's third husband, John Carleton, might have been one of those men. Former suitors revealed her duplicity, and John Carleton was furious. He published pamphlets calling her "this two-legged Monster" and the "Canterbury German."
London wasn't big enough for Mary to keep stealing from the same group of men—she was so infamous that a detective recognized her while he was looking for a different thief, and he had her thrown in jail.
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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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(#13) She Was Deported To Jamaica, But Even That Didn't Stop The Grey Widow
After years of stealing from London's wealthy men, Mary Carleton was caught for taking a silver tankard. This time, she couldn't escape punishment. Mary was found guilty and sentenced to death. But, luckily for Mary, the sentence was commuted to deportation. She sent by ship to the English colony of Jamaica.
Maybe Mary picked up a trick or two from the real Captain Morgan, who lived in Jamaica at the time. After two years in Jamaica, she once again returned to England, pretending to be a rich heiress. She stole over three hundred pounds from a wealth apothecary before she was caught for the last time.
Fleeing Jamaica was a serious offense, and Mary Carleton was sentenced to death by hanging. On January 22, 1673, Mary was executed. She stole from dozens and fooled London into believing she was a princess, but in the end, Mary Carleton couldn't escape justice.
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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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