#2WordPrompt
Princess and King
"I wish to marry for love!" demanded the princess.
So the King relented and allowed her to wed the serf.
The Prince from the other kingdom waged war. Many died. Including the serf.
"Why?" the princess in tears, asked her father.
"I chose Love," he replied.
2025-0906
Story inspired by a writing prompt, #2WordPrompt, and uses a theme that I have been mulling over for many years, which runs contrary to the current idea of a medieval or Renaissance princess choosing her own mate against arranged marriages. The idea is that many of these arranged marriages were for uniting various kingdoms, usually for protection, and often to prevent wars between said kingdoms.
Here is a longer version of the story.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who was of the age to be married. Her father had indulged her and protected her as a child; however, he had never shied away from letting her know that one day she would be married, and that he would choose the husband from several of the princes of nearby kingdoms.
However, she was a willful child, and a favorite of her father, and as she was becoming a young woman, she realized that she had fallen in love with the stable boy. They had practically grown up together, and he had become a handsome young man.
Her father told her one day of her impending marriage to a prince in a nearby kingdom. She immediately rejected the idea, telling her father that she was in love with the stable boy and that she demanded to marry for love, not for station.
Her father begged her to reconsider and consent, but the princess would hear none of it. Her father told her that the marriage had been arranged ever since she and the prince were children. She did not care. She would not be wed to a man she did not know - only to the one she did know and loved.
So, her father relented and she was free to love the stable boy and plan their wedding.
However, because the arrangement was annulled, war broke out between the two kingdoms. The invading army from the nearby kingdom, led by the prince, swept over the mountains and through the hills and plains and killed many, many of the king's subjects.
The stable boy, who was called to be a page to one of the knights and ride out to the fighting to tend the horses, himself was killed in one of the battles. Word came back to the princess that the prince himself had killed the lad.
The princess ran to her father, who sat on his throne, despondent, while the dark clouds gathered all around the land. "Why?" she demanded of him. "Why this sacrifice? Why did all this happen?"
"Because I chose Love," the king said to his daughter.
[I can submit this to Bunker Squirrels, but as it is roughly 363 words, I will need to reduce it to 250 words]
[I can also use this in Anomaly]
