'Sometimes we have to sacrifice our youths in order to let people live.'
Tulia Byrne has been a Queen for longer than she could remember. Her story begins so carefree and so full of love and yet by the end of it you'll be wondering if you even know...
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16th February 1567 The french weather was usually so dark in the winter. The sun would hide behind the dense army of clouds that huddled together in the pouring rain and the rain would fall down in icy shards, shattering onto the heads of people and the tops of carriages as they passed by. Today was not like those days. For the first time in months, the sun broke free from the clouds and shone down onto the people below. It was by no means warm, but it was a respectable day for a reunion.
To any on lookers, it seemed that a young country man was sat on a raggedy blanket with his two sons. The youngest of the boys was plainly dressed and sat with a sullen expression on his face, he kept ripping grass out of the round and throwing it roughly away whilst the older boy watched. The other boy, who's hair was well kept and curly, sat watching the boy with a frown on his face. Neither of them seemed pleased to be there at the time.
The father, on the other hand, was clearly nervous. The dark haired man could not stop wringing his hands together nervously as his eyes darted around the clearing, waiting for someone with baited breath.
A sudden movement in the mans peripheral vision caused him to whip around suddenly. Once his eyes locked onto the figure of a black haired woman holding two squirming children tightly to the bodice of her plain white and green corseted dress. The smile that came onto his face was unimaginably bright, turning around he engaged his children into conversation, trying to distract them from the woman that was making her way over. He wanted it to be a surprise.
You see, the people sat in the clearing were not ordinary people, at first glance any ordinary person may not have noticed, but sat in the short grass was the King of France and his sons, John and and Harry. Both of the boys have been gloomy and upset since their mother was forced to leave in the last months of the previous year, they had been told that today they were going to spend time with grandmother Catherine as she returned from Ireland, neither of them knew who was really coming to see them.
The Queen of Ireland and Wales had been forced to take a retreat from her royal duties, she had dismissed the orders to begin with, but with the constant nagging from Catherine and the support she was receiving by anyone she spoke to, Tulia decided that to escape the incessant nagging she would leave. Although she would never say it out loud, she missed her boys dearly and could not stand to spend anymore time apart. Her cold attitude was something she spent time perfecting at court, she intended to uphold it during her time in France but upon seeing the backs of the two boys she loved the most, she could not hold back the smile that emerged onto her face.
"Are you excited to see your grandmother, Harry?" Charles asked as he stopped the youngest boys hand from pulling more grass from the ground.
The prince mumbled something incoherent under his breath whilst he folded his arms across his chest. It was no secret that Harry would rather not see his grandmother at this time as when he had last spoke to her he had demanded that she brought his mother home to him, when she said no, he had been sulking ever since.
