John Tyler was a president of firsts and worsts.

For a guy nicknamed “the accidental president,” he racked up more than his share of superlatives, not all of them flattering. Allow us to elaborate. Tyler became president by default when William Henry Harrison croaked just a month into office, making Tyler the first president who wasn’t elected. Since he finished out basically all of Harrison’s term, he is also the longest-serving president never to have been elected. Largely considered one of the most ineffectual, and least remembered presidents, he did do some big things. Namely, he was a huge fan of “Manifest Destiny” (a pretty term for the genocide of Native Americans and stealing other people’s land), spearheading the annexation of Texas.

His personal life was also “colorful,” perhaps literally. A native Virginian plantation heir, Tyler was accused of fathering mixed-race children with his slaves and selling off his own babies to cover up the scandal. There is no documented evidence of this, but stories of Tyler ancestry persist in African-American oral histories.  

Even without slave sexual exploitation, though, Tyler got around. His first wife was the saintly Letitia Christian. John and Letitia’s relationship was so chaste that in five years of courtship, he only kissed her once on the hand, just 3 weeks before their wedding. Despite such prudery, John wrote to her, “I shall never cease to love you.”  And perhaps he never did...but that didn’t stop him from loving other people!  

When Letitia died (the first first lady to die in the White House), John consoled himself with the beautiful 21-year-old socialite and former model Julia Gardinder. 30 years his junior, Julia was something of the Anna Nicole Smith (or Melania Trump, as the case may be) of her time, though she refused numerous proposals from Tyler before finally agreeing. Tyler’s daughters from his first marriage weren’t exactly thrilled that daddy was boffing a girl their own age while beloved mommy was yet warm in her grave, and one never forgave evil stepmother Julia.

Tyler had 15 legitimate children (the most of any president) and owing to the age difference with his second wife, Tyler is also the earliest US President to have living grandchildren. One of his sons by Julia also married very late, so despite having been born in the 1700s, Tyler has two grandsons still living as of 2016. In case you haven’t had your daily mind-f@ck, that makes Tyler a 226-year-old dead guy with two grandkids still alive.

When the Civil War broke out, Tyler (always the Virginia boy) threw in with the Confederacy. Thus, when he died in 1862, he became the only president whose death was not officially recognized by the USA, and the first and only to be buried under a foreign, no less enemy flag (the Confederate Flag).

So, let us recap his superlatives:

• First president who wasn’t elected.

• Longest-serving president who wasn’t elected.

• First president whose wife died in the White House.

• Most children of any president.

• Earliest president with living grandchildren.

• First president to be denied a state funeral.

• First president to be buried under a foreign/enemy flag.

Much younger trophy wife? Became president without a majority of votes? Uncomfortable association with racist flags? Only time will tell if Donald Trump beats Tyler’s record.