- An Outstanding Legend Hortense The Third Prologue

Tùy Chỉnh

May 1218... Nottingham...

After a year long of imprisonment, finally the young king Henry the Third had decided a way to settle the rebellious wave in his kingdom: executing his first cousin, the former queen regnant. His reason was that she wasn't supposed to be crowned in the first place, for she wasn't daughter of King Richard, but rather, his younger sister; Anaivere, though bearing the name of Plantagenet, wasn't deserved the crown, for she was technically further down the line because of her lineage. According to the rules, Prince Henry was the legitimate heir to the throne, for he was the king's first son; and Princess Anaivere was just made the crown princess by the petty will of his late uncle Richard the Lionhearted, not wanting to let the throne fall into the hands of his unfavourable brother John Lackland.

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20 May 1218... London Tower...

The former crown princess, the former queen of England, Anaivere Renata Plantagenet, with her undying grace and dignity, stepped on the scaffold. A masked executioner with his broadsword and an axe by his side was awaiting the condemned royal. The former royal advisor's niece walked humbly behind her, a wooden box and some garments held tight in her arms; she avoided her mistress's gaze, for she did not want her to notice the tears trailing down her rosy cheeks. The woman in front of her was once the graceful and beloved queen of this kingdom, a brave Crusader, a honourable outlaw and a sharp archer. She was no longer then.

Even knowing she was stepping towards her demise, the princess still kept a royally manner; she walked on the scaffold, facing the block which would soon be tainted with velvet blood with courage, raising her head high to the sky. Moments later, Anaivere Renata Plantagenet, former Queen of England, would be nothing but a forgotten legend.

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Anaivere Plantagenet died without a thing to be remembered for, nor an issue bearing her bloodline. Yet the legend lived on. In another place and another age, a French rose would bloom amidst the war, carrying the legacy of her spiritual ancestor; she would contribute her sword in both the English Civil War and La Fronde. And more of an ancestor could be proud of, one of her descendants, bearing her name and sword, became a feared chevalier in the Great War.

Hortense de Beaudelaire, la rose française, was born not to become forgotten, but to become outstanding. A successor of Saint Jeanne d'Arc, and an ancestor of an immortal legend.