In 1841, the poet Heinrich Heine married Eugenie Mirat, an uneducated, boorish, and absurdly vain clerk in a Parisian bootshop. Heine's affection for Eugenie was not without its ambiguities. In his will, Heine left her his whole estate, on one condition: that she remarry. Why? "Because then there will be at least one man," he explained, "who will regret my death." The German poet died in 1856.
