Sleeping Beauty

Once upon a time, there lived a young prince whose mother and father had recently died. He was jealous of all the princes of the other kingdoms, because by now they had all inherited their father's throne and were happily married with a beautiful young heir of their own to be proud of. How the prince longed for a son or daughter to brag about, and raise to be the most intelligent and talented child in the world. But sadly, as long as his older brother was there, that pleasure would never be his.  

In just three days his brother was to be wed to a beautiful young princess and later be crowned king, whether the prince liked it or not, so he just sat there in his room all day, gritting his teeth and pondering over all he could soon be having if only his brother had never been born. But he could not just sit back so passively for long, by the next day his anger had consumed him until he could think of nothing else, and when the second day came he could simply suppress it no longer.  

In a flash, he had hatched a cunning plan to get his brother out of the way and take his throne and his princess. First, he framed his brother for the theft of the king of a neighbouring kingdom's priceless jewels and - to the princess' horror - managed to have him banished to the distant, hostile wilderness. Next he claimed the throne and married the poor distressed princess insisting that if he didn't then without a king and queen the kingdom would soon find its way into turmoil. Finally, his wife gave birth to a baby girl that of course - after he had so cleverly arranged circumstances into his favour - was now his daughter.

At last he had everything he wanted, and wished to show it all off to the world. So he decided to throw a huge party to celebrate the birth of his daughter, and invite all the kings of all the neighbouring kingdoms to attend. All of them came, and brought their families - including their children - with them just as the dastardly king had hoped.  

The party began with a great feast, and during it the foreign rulers all bragged about their children's fine taste in food despite their youth, naturally the king joined in with this activity and forced his poor little daughter to eat almost everything on the table to show that she could appreciate every single type of cuisine. 

When the dancing began, the king was even more forceful as he boasted that regardless of her very young age his daughter could perform every dance there was. He stupidly bounced the already rather ill girl up and down and shook her to and fro, until she felt dreadfully sick. 

The festivities were not even halfway towards completion and the girl was already in such a horrific state. Luckily her dear sweet loving mother had stepped forward after the dancing had concluded to take her away from all the excitement and given her some kind and much-needed nurture while the king was distracted. 

After a while, it had come to the end of the fashion parade when the king would stand on an elevated platform above all the men and women dressed in elegant tailor-made garments and select the best one. The king stood upon the platform and thought for a moment before saying, "I say! They all look marvellous! I can't tell you how hard it is to decide which is the best one, but I know one person who could do this with ease..." The king left the platform, sought out his wife and with some difficulty took the girl off her. Then he quickly returned with the baby who was still feeling a little under the weather and held her up for all to see, which made her feel extremely dizzy and brought back that sick feeling in her stomach. Then when he asked her, "So which one my precious little genius?" she vomited all over every single one of those beautiful and expensive outfits.

The people and guests were all absolutely disgusted with what they saw as revolting ingratitude on her part at being given such a privilege. The king was utterly outraged and called the girl a disgrace to the royal family and his kingdom. He immediately ordered his servants to have the clothes cleaned, but alas the stains and horrid stench could not be washed out. So the king threw the now distressed, screaming child into the deepest, darkest dungeon in the entire castle with a spinning wheel and some material. As much as the queen protested, he said that until every single one of the outfits were replaced he would never let her out. This was all too much for her mother, and the grief-stricken queen soon died of a broken heart leaving the girl completely alone and hated by all.