The Crown

King Henry the Fifth was nothing like his namesakes. He was bold, independent, and absolutely mad.

Or at least that's what the people were told.

See, King Henry the First had been a boring man. Nothing significant happened during his rule. All he was remembered for was being the first. His son, King Henry the Second, was a bit more interesting.

During his lifetime, he managed to have six wives. All of them eventually left him. However, near the end of his life, he found his true love. She was a friend of his since childhood, but he had never had the courage to tell her how he felt. When he did, she confessed that she had loved him all her life. They planned to get married as soon as possible, but in the end, Henry was called to war and he was killed.

King Henry the Third was a diplomat through and through. During his reign, there was no war, no bloodshed. He managed to keep his kingdom in order and saw it prosper. He had only two sons, unlike his father, and he taught them both how to lead the kingdom. On his deathbed, he pleaded with his sons to keep the peace. Both swore that they would do so, but it would not come to pass. When King Henry the Third passed on, his youngest son, Prince Phillip, decided that he was better suited to rule than his older brother. He was enraged when his brother thought differently. He swore he would stop at nothing to claim back the crown.

Thus the reign of King Henry the Fourth began with a Civil War. Half of the kingdom supported Phillip and his ideals. The other half stayed loyal to the crown. The war lasted much longer than they had imagined. Forty years of death was what it took for there to be peace.

The war culminated in a battle that would go down in history. Both armies fighting against each other. Brother against brother. Father against son. By this time, Henry the Fifth was a young man who was more than willing to fight alongside his father. He took the lead that fateful day, while his father took a group of soldiers to ambush Phillip and his men.

In the end, the crown was victorious, but their king was lost. For Henry the Fourth and Phillip the Fair had fought to the death.

When Phillip stabbed Henry through the midsection, he believed he had won, but Henry managed to pull himself onto the sword; Phillip met his end with a sword through the chest.

King Henry the Fourth died in his son's arms.

Upon their return, Henry the Fifth was crowned king. But he was not the same as before. He had lost all the joy he had had before. He lost his smile, his easy-going demeanor. He no longer went to the market everyday to converse with his people.

In fact, after the end of the war, King Henry locked himself in the castle for three years.

One winter's morn, however, there was a change. King Henry the Fifth was seen coming out of the castle with a smile on his face.

He stood on the balcony that oversaw the kingdom. On his arm was a beautiful woman. In his arms was a bundle.

"Oi, what is that?"

"I don't know mate, looks like a bag of sorts"

"A bag, are you mad? No, that looks like..."

"Like what?"

"A baby!"

"A baby?"

And a baby it was. Or rather, two. They were twins.

Royal children to grace them after the years of tribulation. But who was that woman? Was one of the children the next king Henry?

In truth, there was a boy. A boy and a girl. But the girl had been born first. The boy was not named Henry. And instead of having the boy as heir, King Henry announced that his daughter was to become queen.

This, my friends, was the start of the rumors. People said that King Henry's wife was a witch. That she had twisted his mind.

Others said that the death of his father had been too much for him. And yet others said that he had been a mad man to begin with, but that he had managed to conceal it for enough time to get the people to trust him.

But not all people thought that way. There were those who praised the king. They said that he had been brave to break with both traditions. There were those who agreed that it was time for a change.

But the announcement left the kingdom in turmoil.

From then on, things got better. Or worse, depending on how you looked at it.

King Henry the Fifth made allies of sworn enemies. Other kingdoms who had invaded their lands before were now welcomed like friends. He began to introduce new weapons. Bows were replaced with a new invention that was called a "gun". Swordplay was no longer the focal point.

Knights in shining armor began to disappear slowly. They became the thing of legend, yes, but the people were not happy.

Then, when the identity of King Henry's wife was finally revealed, the people outraged.

She was not a noble like they had thought. She had been a servant in the castle. And she had been the one to care for the king in his worst moments.

They had fallen in love and had married in secret. When she became pregnant, the king seemed to return to his old self.

And when Princess Dalia and Prince Jon were born, he was head over heels.

The king had broken multiple traditions in a very short period of time. He married a commoner, he refused to name his son Henry, he welcomed their now former enemies, he introduced new weaponry, and he named a girl as his heir.

The people revolted the day before princess Dalia's coronation. They attempted to kill her, but king Henry stopped them all. In the chaos, a guard who attempted to shoot one of the attackers accidentally shot the king instead.

As he lay dying, the people realized what they had done.

King Henry the Fifth died in his wife's arms, surrounded by his children and his people. He died at the foot of his throne.

And the people realized that he wasn't the mad one. They were.

At his funeral, everyone in the kingdom came to pay their respects. Every man, woman and child came to see their ruler one last time.

And when Dalia was crowned queen, the people received her with open arms.

Their eyes had been opened at last. They learned to accept those things that were not considered as the "norm".

And in the end, despite the great tragedy that had ensued, they learned to see that a king, or a queen, was much more than they believed at first.

They learned to respect and love whoever wore the crown, no matter what they looked like.

And they all lived in harmony. They lived in peace for the rest of their lives.

And there never was another revolution against the crown of King Henry.