A Forgotten Legend: Anaivere the First

Special Chapter: The White Coat

An extraordinary chapter to celebrate the Author's birthday and university graduation; also, to commemorate the sacrifices of everyone— especially the setting stone of everything Sherline Holmes— in the past decade and more.
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May 120—...

The citizens of England, poor peasants in particular, were growing more impatient as the political distress in the Kingdom escalating and the financial burden they had to bear in lieu of the royal family was pushing them closer and closer to a peasants' revolt. However, it wasn't until two centuries after that one would dare to raise the flags. Though King John was notorious for his taxes, it was later revealed that his brother King Richard's capture had given him a hefty burden both politically and financially, a part of the latter which he had the commoners shared. This was but one of the secrets he kept from his innocent and naïve niece lest she strayed from her aim; albeit he acted as though a power-hungry monarch, he had absolutely no qualms with his young niece succeeding him and correcting the wrongs his brother and him had brought.

The soon-to-be crowned Crown Princess Anaivere Plantagenet, the darling of both the rich and the poor, the law-abidings and the outlaws, the nobles and the commoners of Nottingham, was drowning in increasing duties which people would expect in an heir to the crown. This day, she was on a trip visiting Beaumont Palace, her uncles' birthplace, as per his request and being escorted by the royal knights and (from a distance) her outlaw knights, but she now was having another destination in mind.

The one-hundred-year-old Oxford University.

At least, it was the only thing she had planned herself on this trip. It had been said in the Realm's chronicles that Her Excellency's first creation—the one best known as Sherline the barrister—had studied at this place following the more well-known Harvard (which had yet to exist at this time). But since Canon Law stated women weren't allowed into such scholarly grounds, it made her wonder for a moment why could that Sherline have been able to study Law at the first place, let alone been able to get the black silk robe she was so proud of...

Her impatience grew as the law looming above her twenty-fourth birthday. She'd better not let Her Excellency wait in expectation, as a crown princess to her subjects; also she'd better not let Her Excellency wait, for she was her creator and should in all circumstances not be left waiting. Yet, how was she meant to go to the university if women weren't allowed there?

"You have an appointment at the University, milady?", asked Little John as he hid behind a shrub just outside of her window.

"Ah... thou mayst say so...", sighed the princess.

"Ain't our Highness the May Day Maid now!", teased Little John, "You are, like, twenty- years of age now and yet a maiden! Isn't that alarming for a noblewoman to be a maiden at twenty-?"

"With a wayward spirit such as mine, how can I fit to be a wife or a mother?", chuckled the princess. "I may miss a ring on my finger, but this appointment is something I absolutely cannot miss! Thou couldst somehow bring me there, Sir John?"

"Sh, lower your voice, milady...", he put a finger on his lips, "It won't be pretty if someone knows you converse with an outlaw. But yes, I may be able to escort you to the place you want to come. Where is it then?"

"Just a short walk from here, Oxford University!", whispered the princess to the shrub where Little John hid.

"Oxf—!", he was about to exclaim but able to stop himself at the right moment.

"I am sane, Sir John. I need to go there, for someone very important— an acquaintance you may say— is waiting for me!"

"An Oxford scholar? Why on earth your Highness wants to meet a snooty and aloof Oxford scholar? Not only he's unreachable, he's obnoxious no less! At least choose a decent nobleman to court, your Highness!"