Love of a Good King

Image "Castle Caladan" by AndrewRyanArt over at Deviantart

Poe and his character lost their loves in kingdoms by the sea. This kingdom was not unlike those. The woman's name was neither Annabel nor Virginia, and the cause was neither TB, nor a cloud of darkness. Humperdinck lost his love by the sea, but our king was a hero. His love didn't prick her finger on a spinning wheel, or eat a cursed apple, and she wasn't cursed herself. In the end it was a trivial thing. She simply tripped playing a game with some adolescents, fell and hit her head on a rock. She didn't die immediately, despite the blood, and the infection got her against the best medical care. 

She had been full of life right up till the very end. The fever had her saying things that didn't make any sense, but it wasn't sad or angry things, she was just a bit confused at the worst of times, and very friendly or expressive at others. Finally her mind went, and then she fell asleep for three days, and then she left. It all felt more sudden than a week, but a week had gone by all the same, and he had stayed by her bedside the entire time, and now there was a kingdom to run. He would always remember her like that though, the way she died. Playing with children. The king didn't become bitter, or a bad king, or a shut in. He attended functions, and remembered names, and worked out disputes between farmers and fishermen. The laws he wrote were just, and he continued to care about his people, but he was a sad king. 

Time wore on and no heir was produced, which was a problem. There were those who said that he was trying to extend his reign, but he was a good king, and it was clear to those who had seen him that he did not care for the job, and that he missed the love he lost, so it was an unpopular opinion. War came and war went, and mostly, the kingdom was at peace. He managed to finagle favorable fishing rights, and to defend the farms on their boarder. His kindness, humble gentility, and sad, grey-blue eyes made him a good diplomat. Eventually he began to look for an heir, and during that search he came across a scholar, a knight, and a promising diplomat. 

I won't make you wonder how he chooses -- he made the kingdom into a triumvirate with the scholar chosen by intelligence, creativity, and loyalty, the knight chosen by honor, loyalty, military leadership, and tactics, and the diplomat chosen by charm, wiles, and love of the people. Not an incredibly original or groundbreaking government, and it wouldn't be perfect, but until he died, he mentored the three of them, and worked with each of them and the group of them on determining methods of securing their own successors. He made sure they avoided their mistakes, and when they did something wrong or unfitting of a leader, he fixed it, overrode it, and made them see the problem. He was not perfect, but a demand for respect of himself and his people and a good head for common sense, fairness, and leadership helped him here. They began as advisers, and moved into strong shakers and movers for the kingdom.

The scholar, with her influence, created a medical practice, explained to the king why autopsies, though taboo, would help keep people well, and to improve them when they were sick. The king gave his approval, and this kingdom led the world in medicine, though they earned a reputation as witch doctors, necromancers, and heretics elsewhere. The people, in time, and through trust in their king, accepted the practices. 

Other kingdoms attacked, but the knight was much more apt a tactician and trainer than the king. His honor and loyalty prevented him usurping power, and his command of the military kept other nations' attackers from completing successful invasion. He asked the king permission to work with the scholar on weapons development, and before long, the invasions stopped, and the nation's blacksmiths and siege engineers were the best anywhere. 

The diplomat, at first, looked like a wrong choice. But the king held faith in him, and rightly so. It takes time to break into groups who think hey are high-class, and the diplomat needed this time, but he became very persuasive towards them after months of work, and secured trade routes and renewed fishing and farming rights to land that had been in the kingdom for fifty years. When given things to work with like advanced blacksmithing techniques and basic medicine, he was able to earn the high spot in that circle called court life. Coming home to his own kingdom and having friends and enemies come to him for negotiation was the sum of his and the other triumvirate's achievements, but perhaps his greatest was convincing other nations that his nation did not practice necromancy, they merely healed other nations' people and then, when asked, processed them through immigration and allowed those people to live in a place with clean rooms and utensils, and penicillin, which had been discovered in the kingdom. The king had not wanted to address the necromancy rumor at first, being offended by it, but his diplomat had convinced him, and afterwards, he was thankful that he had hired someone so persuasive. 

They became his friends, and he talked to them over drinks or meals, long into the night, sometimes alone and sometimes with two or all three of them present. He told them all about her, and about his time ruling, and about scrapes he had gotten into, and how he had gotten out of, or through them. They were all in awe of him, because he had chosen them so well, such that they respected and were proud of the other two people they ruled with, which made them wonder how he had done it alone. He would tell them that the kingdom had never been this prosperous or successful when he was ruling alone, and they would tell him that without fifty years of successful rule, or his blessing of their ideas, the four of them would have never pulled off any of the things they were able to do. There were many other great accomplishments, as there are when people of all classes are efficient, happy, and loyal, innovation is encouraged, and ruling is done effectively. They listened to him speak about her, urged him to marry again, told him what a great husband he would make, how lucky a maid would be to have him. They consoled him at his worst times, and though they saw him break down, they were in awe of this too -- a man who could love so strongly, for so many years. 

He had received the kingship on his twenty-fifth birthday, and she had died when he was twenty-eight and she twenty-two, then the kingdom was fully his at thirty, and his parents died at his thirty-six and thirty-nine. Father had lived longer, and those three years had not been good ones, the son, who was his father's best friend, looking after his father. The father having lost the love of his life, same as his son, but being unwilling to accept the similarity of situations. Father hadn't been rude about it, but he had been unable to take advice well or accept with sincerity the king's insistence that he understood Father's predicament. 

The king emphasized their role as a group. If they did not mentor newcomers for a short time and then give them full respect and responsibility, and make sure that the newcomers would do the same, they could not continue this system. Likewise they could not have vicious or ambitious people running for the triumvirate without a replacement job that was seen as nearly equivalent, or assassinations would have a chance to happen, which was unacceptable. Choosing a replacement who loved the country was essential, and who loved his fellow leaders and respected their talents even more successful. Making these people the leaders encouraged this idea to proliferate, and, after a few generations, the transformation should improve the quality of life for everyone. 

When he passed away, they ruled his nation fairly, and passed on their roles, each in their own way, when it was each of their own times. Their successors got along, and continued idolizing that first scholar, knight, and diplomat. They all but deified the king, in roman fashion, somewhere between ancestor worship and the worship of typical gods. In the end, her death, his lack of a successor, left him happy, talking and spending time with his friends, advisers, and successors. Her death left his kingdom more prosperous than it could have possibly been any other way, but he would have preferred another day or week with her. He would have felt selfish, but he wouldn't have thought twice about trading a year with her for all the good that had happened. It simply wouldn't be a question in his mind. No doubt, no fear, no regret, just one more year with her. 

"Love of a Good King" Flash Fiction © Ben Clardy V

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.