Queen of Hearts – A Woman of Rare Interest

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The Queen of Hearts is Catherine Belle, a famous French Resistance fighter during World War II who changed her name and changed her profession. She was captured and held prisoner in Germany by the Gestapo but after escaping from a prison camp and traveling to France she was put on trial for participating in German military activities and ultimately convicted of participating in activities against the British. Despite this fact her star status has risen to the occasion of receiving the Order of the Stars, one of France’s highest awards for civilian achievement. After the war she married Paul Beliberger, but before they had their first child they were forced to leave France and live in exile in England.

Catherine was known at this point in her life as Celine, but her true identity was a mystery even to her own family. She had, however, managed to elude capture, and was known only as Ceausescu’s mistress. Celine’s husband, Alexandre Bonaparte, knew that she was in fact the Resistance leader and had helped her escape from a concentration camp, but he was unaware of her true identity or her designation as Ceausescu’s mistress. Some sources say that her real name was Antonia, while others believe that her real name was Charlotte. Her real profession was acting, so it is possible that she served as Ceausescu’s mistress not as his governess.

Catherine and Bonaparte had six children, but her true identity as the Queen of Hearts is largely unrecorded in public records. She was forty when she was captured and imprisoned, but we do know that she was in fact the Queen of Spain and that her real name was Joanna. At the time of her death she was seventy-one years old, making her official age considerably higher than her actual rank and nationality. While the exact cause of her imprisonment is unknown, it is certain that her nationality (Spanish, not French) and her occupation (acting) played roles in her demise.

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