In fact, eunuchs were used in many ancient empires to guard royal harems, given that they could not impregnate an emperor's queen or mistress, according to "Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China Buffalolo NY: Prometheus, 1990).
Alias Grace also co-stars Anna Paquin as Marks's power-tripping mistress, and Zachary Levi as mysterious peddler and "Neuro-Hypnotist" Jeremiah Pontelli, who warns Marks that she is in danger.
The most famously avaricious for both money and power, and the mistress who retained power over the king for longest, was Barbara Villiers: the exhibition includes the outrageous portrait of her as the Virgin Mary, dandling her son by the king, both perfectly recognisable to her contemporaries.
He is gathering information for his power struggle with Mistress Boleyn.
Rembrandt paints her, already bleeding, as his mistress Hendrickje: destroyed by the power of disapproving burghers, she is a heroine of the intimate republic of (illicit) love.
It feels like the mistress can be imbued with great power, but it's only power that's been given to her, and allowed, by a man.
It seems that from senior party and government officials to grass-roots organizers — anyone who has access to power has access to mistresses.
In Marco Bellocchio's "Vincere," the handsome young Benito Mussolini Filippo Timii), a fiery Socialist years away from taking power, makes love to his mistress, Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno).
They were "The Maids," as in the Jean Genet play and 1974 movie — two depraved women from the 1930s who fantasized and dressed up in their mistress's wardrobe — before ending their sadomasochistic power game by killing their employer.
Mistresses and wives choose politicians partly because power is sexy.
