George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death in 1760. George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain: he was born and brought up in northern Germany, his grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, became second in line to the British throne after about 50 Catholics higher in line were excluded by the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Acts of Union 1707, which restricted the succession to Protestants. After the deaths of Sophia and Anne, Queen of Great Britain, in 1714, his father George I, Elector of Hanover, inherited the British throne. In the first years of his father's reign as king, George was associated with opposition politicians, until they rejoined the governing party in 1720; as king from 1727, George exercised little control over British domestic policy, controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As elector, he spent twelve summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy.
He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, who supported the parliamentary opposition. During the War of the Austrian Succession, George participated at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, thus became the last British monarch to lead an army in battle. In 1745, supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart, led by James's son Charles Edward Stuart and failed to depose George in the last of the Jacobite rebellions. Frederick died unexpectedly in 1751, nine years before his father, so George II was succeeded by his grandson, George III. For two centuries after George II's death, history tended to view him with disdain, concentrating on his mistresses, short temper, boorishness. Since most scholars have reassessed his legacy and conclude that he held and exercised influence in foreign policy and military appointments. George was born in the city of Hanover in Germany, was the son of George Louis, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg, his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle.
His sister, Sophia Dorothea, was born. Both of George's parents committed adultery, in 1694 their marriage was dissolved on the pretext that Sophia had abandoned her husband, she was confined to Ahlden House and denied access to her two children, who never saw their mother again. George spoke only French, the language of diplomacy and the court, until the age of four, after which he was taught German by one of his tutors, Johann Hilmar Holstein. In addition to French and German, he was schooled in English and Italian, studied genealogy, military history, battle tactics with particular diligence. George's second cousin once removed, Queen Anne, ascended the thrones of England and Ireland in 1702, she had no surviving children, by the Act of Settlement 1701, the English Parliament designated Anne's closest Protestant blood relations, George's grandmother Sophia and her descendants, as Anne's heirs in England and Ireland. After his grandmother and father, George was third in line to succeed Anne in two of her three realms.
He was naturalized as an English subject in 1705 by the Sophia Naturalization Act, in 1706, he was made a Knight of the Garter and created Duke and Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Milford Haven, Viscount Northallerton, Baron Tewkesbury in the Peerage of England. England and Scotland united in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, jointly accepted the succession as laid down by the English Act of Settlement. George's father did not want his son to enter into a loveless arranged marriage as he had, wanted him to have the opportunity of meeting his bride before any formal arrangements were made. Negotiations from 1702 for the hand of Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, Dowager Duchess and regent of Holstein-Gottorp, came to nothing. In June 1705, under the false name of "Monsieur de Busch", George visited the Ansbach court at their summer residence in Triesdorf to investigate incognito a marriage prospect: Caroline of Ansbach, the former ward of his aunt Queen Sophia Charlotte of Prussia; the English envoy to Hanover, Edmund Poley, reported that George was so taken by "the good character he had of her that he would not think of anybody else".
A marriage contract was concluded by the end of July. On 22 August / 2 September 1705O. S./N. S. Caroline arrived in Hanover for her wedding, held the same evening in the chapel at Herrenhausen. George was keen to participate in the war against France in Flanders, but his father refused permission for him to join the army in an active role until he had a son and heir. In early 1707, George's hopes were fulfilled. In July, Caroline fell ill with smallpox, George caught the infection after staying by her side devotedly during her illness, they both recovered. In 1708, George participated in the Battle of Oudenarde in the vanguard of the Hanoverian cavalry; the British commander, wrote that George "distinguished himself charging at the head of and animating by his example troops, who played a good part in this happy victory". Between 1709 and 1713, George and Caroline had three more children, all girls: Anne and Caroline. By 1714, Queen Anne's health had declined, British Whigs, politicians who supported the Hanoverian succession, thought it prudent for one of the Hanoverians to live in England, to safeguard
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales, was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, the mother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. Diana was born into the Spencer family, a family of British nobility, she was the youngest daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, she grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate, was educated in England and Switzerland. In 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became known as Lady Diana Spencer. Diana came to prominence in February 1981 upon engagement to Prince Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Chester. The marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne; as Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions overseas.
She was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Diana was involved with dozens of charities including London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, of which she was president from 1989, she raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with HIV/AIDS, mental illness. Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996 following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in a Paris tunnel on 31 August 1997 and subsequent televised funeral. Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Norfolk, she was the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, his first wife, Frances. The Spencer family has been allied with the British royal family for several generations; the Spencers were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after her mother and after Lady Diana Spencer, a many-times-great-aunt, a prospective Princess of Wales.
On 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at Sandringham. She grew up with three siblings: Sarah and Charles, her infant brother, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born. The desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers' marriage, Lady Althorp was sent to Harley Street clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem"; the experience was described as "humiliating" by Diana's younger brother, Charles: "It was a dreadful time for my parents and the root of their divorce because I don't think they got over it." Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate. The Spencers leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II; the royal family holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, Diana played with the Queen's sons Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Diana was seven years old, her mother began a relationship with Peter Shand Kydd and married him in 1969. Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents' separation in 1967, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana return to London with Lady Althorp.
Shortly afterwards he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy. In 1976, Lord Althorp married Countess of Dartmouth. Diana's relationship with her stepmother was bad, she resented Raine, whom she called a "bully", on one occasion Diana "pushed her down the stairs". She described her childhood as "very unhappy" and "very unstable, the whole thing". Diana became known as Lady Diana after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975, at which point her father moved the entire family from Park House to Althorp, the Spencer seat in Northamptonshire. Diana was home-schooled under the supervision of her governess, Gertrude Allen, she began her formal education at Silfield Private School in Gayton and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Thetford, when she was nine. She joined her sisters at West Heath Girls' School in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1973, she did not shine academically. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath.
She left West Heath. Her brother Charles recalls her as being quite shy up until that time, she showed a talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Diana excelled in swimming and diving, studied ballet and tap dance. After attending Institut Alpin Videmanette for one term in 1978, Diana returned to London, where she shared her mother's flat with two school friends. In London, she took an advanced cooking course, but cooked for her roommates, she took a series of low-paying jobs. She found employment as a playgroup pre-school assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, acted as a hostess at parties. Diana spent time working as a nanny for the Robertsons, an American family living in London, worked as a nursery teacher's assistant at the Young England School in Pimlico. In July 1979, her mother bought her a flat at Coleherne Court in Earl's Court as an 18
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person, first in a line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. An heir presumptive, by contrast, is someone, first in line to inherit a title but who can be displaced by the birth of a more eligible heir. Today these terms most describe heirs to hereditary titles or offices when only inheritable by a single person. Most monarchies refer to the heir apparent of their thrones with the descriptive term of crown prince but these heirs may be accorded with a more specific substantive title, such as Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, Duke of Brabant in Belgium, Prince of Asturias in Spain, or Prince of Wales in the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. In France the title was le Dauphin, in Imperial Russia; the term is used metaphorically to indicate an "anointed" successor to any position of power, e.g. a political or corporate leader. This article describes the term heir apparent in a hereditary system regulated by laws of primogeniture—as opposed to cases where a monarch has a say in naming the heir.
In a hereditary system governed by some form of primogeniture, an heir apparent is identifiable as the person whose position as first in the line of succession to a title or office is secure, regardless of future births. An heir presumptive, by contrast, can always be "bumped down" in the succession by the birth of somebody more related in a legal sense to the current title-holder; the clearest example occurs in the case of a holder of a hereditary title, one that can only be inherited by a single person, with no children. If at any time he were to produce children, they rank ahead of whatever more "distant" relative had been heir presumptive. Many legal systems assume childbirth is always possible regardless of health. In such circumstances a person may be, in a practical sense, the heir apparent but still speaking, heir presumptive. Indeed, when Queen Victoria succeeded her uncle King William IV, the wording of the proclamation gave as a caveat:...saving the rights of any issue of his late Majesty King William IV, which may be born of his late Majesty's consort.
This provided for the possibility that William's wife, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, was pregnant at the moment of his death, since such a posthumous child, regardless of its sex, would have displaced Victoria from the throne. Adelaide was 44 at the time, so pregnancy was possible if unlikely. Daughters may inherit titles that descend according to male-preference primogeniture, but only in default of sons; that is, both female and male offspring have the right to a place somewhere in the order of succession, but when it comes to what that place is, a female will rank behind her brothers regardless of their ages or her age. Thus even an only daughter will not be heir apparent, since at any time a brother might be born who, though younger, would assume that position. Hence, she is an heir presumptive. For example, Queen Elizabeth II was heir presumptive during the reign of her father, King George VI, because at any stage up to his death, George could have fathered a legitimate son. In a system of absolute primogeniture that disregards gender, female heirs apparent occur.
As succession to titles, positions, or offices in the past most favoured males than females, females considered to be an heir apparent were rare. Absolute primogeniture was not practised by any modern monarchy for succession to their thrones until the late twentieth century with Sweden being the first to adopt absolute primogeniture in 1980 and other Western European monarchies following suit. Since the adoption of absolute primogeniture by contemporary Western European monarchies, examples of female heirs apparent include: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, Princess Elisabeth of Belgium. Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway is heir apparent to her father, Victoria herself has a female heir apparent in her oldest child, Princess Estelle. Victoria was not heir apparent from birth, but gained the status in 1980 following a change in the Swedish Act of Succession, her younger brother Carl Philip was thus heir apparent for a few months. In 2015, pursuant to the 2011 Perth Agreement, the Commonwealth realms changed the rules of succession to the 16 thrones of Elizabeth II to absolute primogeniture, except for male heirs born before the Perth Agreement.
The effects are not to be felt for many years. But in legal systems that apply male-preference primogeniture, female heirs apparent are by no means impossible: if a male heir apparent dies leaving no sons but at least one daughter the eldest daughter would replace her father as heir apparent to whatever throne or title is concerned, but only when it has become clear that the widow of the deceased is not pregnant; as the representative of her father's line she would assume a place ahead of any more distant relatives. Such a situation has not to date occurred with the British throne.
Edward the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince, was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, thus the heir to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward still earned distinction as one of the most successful English commanders during the Hundred Years' War, being regarded by his contemporaries as a model of chivalry and one of the greatest knights of his age. Edward was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337, he was guardian of the kingdom in his father's absence in 1338, 1340, 1342. He was created Prince of Wales in 1343 and knighted by his father at La Hogne in 1346. In 1346 Prince Edward commanded the vanguard at the Battle of Crécy, his father intentionally leaving him to win the battle, he took part in Edward III's 1349 Calais expedition. In 1355 he was appointed the king's lieutenant in Gascony, ordered to lead an army into Aquitaine on a chevauchée, during which he pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary, sacked Carcassonne, plundered Narbonne.
The next year on another chevauchée he ravaged Auvergne and Berry but failed to take Bourges. He offered terms of peace to King John II of France, who had outflanked him near Poitiers, but refused to surrender himself as the price of their acceptance; this led to the Battle of Poitiers where his army took King John prisoner. The year after Poitiers, the Black Prince returned to England. In 1360 he negotiated the treaty of Bretigny, he was created Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony in 1362, but his suzerainty was not recognised by the lord of Albret or other Gascon nobles. He was directed by his father to forbid the marauding raids of the English and Gascon free companies in 1364, he entered into an agreement with don Pedro of Castile and Charles II of Navarre, by which Pedro covenanted to mortgage Castro de Urdiales and the province of Biscay to him as security for a loan. In 1367 he received a letter of defiance from Henry of Trastámara, Don Pedro's half-brother and rival; the same year, after an obstinate conflict, he defeated Henry at the Battle of Nájera.
However, after a wait of several months, during which he failed to obtain either the province of Biscay or liquidation of the debt from Don Pedro, he returned to Aquitaine. Prince Edward persuaded the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth tax of ten sous for five years in 1368, thereby alienating the lord of Albret and other nobles. Drawn into open war with Charles V of France in 1369, he took Limoges, where in 1370 he gave orders for an indiscriminate massacre in revenge for the voluntary surrender of that town to the French by its bishop, his private friend; the Black Prince returned to England in 1371 and the next year resigned the principality of Aquitaine and Gascony. He led the commons in their attack upon the Lancastrian administration in 1376, he died in 1376 of dysentery and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, where his surcoat, helmet and gauntlets are still preserved. Edward, the eldest son of Edward III and Queen Philippa, was born at Woodstock on 15 June 1330, his father on 10 September allowed five hundred marks a year from the profits of the county of Chester for his maintenance.
In the July of that year the king proposed to marry him to a daughter of Philip VI of France. On 18 March 1333, Edward was invested with the earldom and county of Chester, in the parliament of 9 February 1337 he was created Duke of Cornwall and received the duchy by charter dated 17 March; this is the earliest instance of the creation of a duke in England. By the terms of the charter the duchy was to be held by the eldest sons of kings of England, his tutor was Dr. Walter Burley of Oxford, his revenues were placed at the disposal of his mother in March 1334 for the expenses she incurred in bringing up him and his two sisters and Joan. Rumours of an impending French invasion led the king in August 1335 to order that he and his household should remove to Nottingham Castle as a place of safety; when two cardinals came to England at the end of 1337 to make peace between Edward III and Philip VI, the Duke of Cornwall is said to have met the cardinals outside the City of London, in company with many nobles to have conducted them to the King Edward.
On 11 July 1338 his father, on the point of leaving England for Flanders, appointed him guardian of the kingdom during his absence, he was appointed to the same office on 27 May 1340 and 6 October 1342. In order to attach John, Duke of Brabant, to his cause, the king in 1339 proposed a marriage between the young Duke of Cornwall and John's daughter Margaret, in the spring of 1345 wrote urgently to Pope Clement VI for a dispensation for this marriage. On 12 May 1343, Edward created the duke Prince of Wales, in a parliament held at Westminster, investing him with a circlet, gold ring, silver rod; the prince accompanied his father to Sluys on 3 July 1345, Edward tried to persuade the burgomasters of Ghent and Ypres to accept his son as their lord, but the murder of Jacob van Artevelde put an end to this project. Both in September and in the following April the prince was called on to furnish troops from his principality and earldom for the impending campaign in France, as he incurred heavy debts in the king's service his father authorised him to make his will, provided that in case he fell in the war his executors should have all his revenue for a year.
Edward, Prince of Wales sailed with K
Caroline of Brunswick
Caroline of Brunswick was Queen of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George IV from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821. She was the Princess of Wales from 1795 to 1820, her father, Charles William Ferdinand, was the ruler of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Germany, her mother, was the sister of the British king George III. In 1794, she was engaged to her first cousin and George III's eldest son, despite the two of them never having met and George being illegally married to Maria Fitzherbert. George and Caroline married the following year, nine months Caroline had a child, Princess Charlotte of Wales. Shortly after Charlotte's birth and Caroline separated. By 1806, rumours that Caroline had taken lovers and had an illegitimate child led to an investigation into her private life; the dignitaries who led the investigation concluded that there was "no foundation" to the rumours, but Caroline's access to her daughter was nonetheless restricted. In 1814, Caroline moved to Italy. Pergami soon became Caroline's closest companion, it was assumed that they were lovers.
In 1817, Caroline was devastated. She heard the news from a passing courier as George had refused to tell her, he was determined to divorce Caroline, set up a second investigation to collect evidence of her adultery. In 1820, George became king of Hanover. George hated his wife, vowed she would never be the queen, insisted on a divorce, which she refused. A legal divorce was difficult to obtain. Caroline returned to Britain to assert her position as queen, she was wildly popular with the British populace, who sympathized with her and despised the new king for his immoral behaviour. On the basis of the loose evidence collected against her, George attempted to divorce her by introducing the Pains and Penalties Bill to Parliament, but George and the bill were so unpopular, Caroline so popular with the masses, that it was withdrawn by the Tory government. In July 1821, Caroline was barred from the coronation on the orders of her husband, she died three weeks later. Her funeral procession passed through London on its way to her native Brunswick, where she was buried.
Caroline was born a princess of Brunswick, with the courtesy title of Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, on 17 May 1768 at Braunschweig in Germany. She was the daughter of Charles William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, his wife Princess Augusta of Great Britain, eldest sister of George III. Caroline was brought up in a difficult family situation, her mother resented her father's open adultery with Louise Hertefeld, whom he had installed as his official mistress in 1777, Caroline was to confide to Lady Charlotte Campbell that she was tired of becoming a "shuttlecock" between her parents, as whenever she was civil to one of them, she was scolded by the other. She was educated by governesses, but the only subject in which she was given a higher education was music. From 1783 until 1791 Countess Eleonore von Münster was her governess, won her affection, but never managed to teach her to spell as Caroline preferred to dictate to a secretary. Caroline could understand English and French, but her father admitted that she was lacking in education.
According to Caroline's mother, British, all German princesses learned English in the hope that they would be chosen to marry George, Prince of Wales, George III's eldest son and heir apparent and Caroline's first cousin. John Stanley Lord Stanley of Alderley, saw her in 1781, noted that she was an attractive girl with curly, fair hair. In 1784, she was described as a beauty, two years Mirabeau described her as "most amiable, playful and handsome."Caroline was brought up with an extreme degree of seclusion from contact with the opposite sex for her own time. She was constantly supervised by her governess and elder ladies, restricted to her room when the family was entertaining guests and ordered to keep away from the windows, she was refused permission to attend balls and court functions, when allowed, she was forbidden to dance. Abbé Baron commented during the winter of 1789–90: "She is supervised with the greatest severity, as they claim she is aware of what she is missing. I doubt. Although always attired with style and elegance, she is never allowed to dance", that as soon as the first dance begun, she was forced to sit down at the whist table with three old ladies.
A rare occasion was the wedding of her elder brother Charles, when she was allowed to dance, though only with her brother, the groom, her new brother-in-law, the Prince of Orange – she was, still forbidden to dine alone with her brother. Her secluded isolation tormented her, demonstrated when she was again banned from attending a ball, she simulated an illness so severe. When they arrived, she forced them to send for a midwife; when the midwife arrived, she stopped her simulation and asked her mother: "Now, will you keep me another time from a ball?"Her mother early favored a match between one of her children and a member of her English family, when her nephew Prince Frederick visited Brunswick in June 1781, she lamented the fact that Caroline, because of her age, could not be present often. Caroline was given a number of proposals from 1782 onward. Marriage with the Prince of Orange, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and
The Mists of Avalon
The Mists of Avalon is a 1983 fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which the author relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine, a priestess fighting to save her Celtic culture in a country where Christianity threatens to destroy the pagan way of life; the epic is focused on the lives of Gwenhwyfar, Morgause and other women of the Arthurian legend. The Mists of Avalon is in stark contrast to most other retellings of the Arthurian tales, which cast Morgan le Fay as a distant, one-dimensional evil sorceress, with little or no explanation given for her antagonism to the Round Table. In this case, Morgaine is presented as a woman with unique gifts and responsibilities at a time of enormous political and spiritual upheaval, called upon to defend her indigenous heritage against impossible odds; the story is told in four large parts: "Book One: Mistress of Magic", "Book Two: The High Queen", "Book Three: The King Stag", "Book Four: The Prisoner in the Oak".
The novel remains popular to this day. Bradley and Diana L. Paxson expanded the book into the Avalon series; the Mists of Avalon is a generations-spanning retelling of the Arthurian legend that brings it back to its Brythonic Celtic roots. The plot tells the story of the women who influence King Arthur, High King of Britain, those around him; the book's main protagonist is Morgaine, priestess of Avalon, King Arthur's half-sister. Their mother, Igraine, is married to Uther Pendragon after Morgaine's biological father, Gorlois, is killed in battle. Rumors spread in Avalon that before Igraine knew her husband Gorlois was killed, Uther consulted with Merlin who used his magic to transform the king into the likeness of Gorlois and thus gain access to Igraine at Tintagel, he spent the night with her and they conceived a son, Arthur. Morgaine witnesses Uther Pendragon's accession to the throne of Caerleon after his predecessor, dies of old age. Uther becomes her step-father, he and Igraine have a son, Morgaine's half-brother.
When Morgaine is eleven years old and Arthur six, an attempt of murder is made on Arthur's life. Their maternal aunt, the high priestess Viviane, arrives in Caerleon and advises Uther to have Arthur fostered far away from the court for his own safety. Uther agrees, allows Viviane to take Morgaine to Avalon, where she is trained as a priestess of the Mother Goddess. During this period, Morgaine becomes aware of the rising tension between the old Pagan and the new Christian religions. After seven years of training, Morgaine is initiated as a priestess of the Mother, Viviane begins grooming her as the next Lady of Avalon; some months after her initiation, Morgaine is given in a fertility rite to the future high king of Britain. Their union is not meant to be personal, but rather a symbolic wedding between the future high king and the land he is to defend; the following morning and Arthur recognize each other and are horrified to realize what they have done. Two months Morgaine is devastated to find that she is pregnant.
After Uther dies in battle against the Saxon invaders, Arthur claims the throne of Britain despite questions about his legitimacy. Since Arthur must now defend Britain against the Saxons, Viviane has Morgaine make him an enchanted scabbard that will prevent him from losing blood and gives him the sacred sword Excalibur. With the combined force of Avalon and Caerleon, Arthur repels the invaders; as Morgaine's unborn child grows within her, so do her feelings of anger and betrayal toward Viviane, who she believes tricked her into bearing a child to her own half-brother. Unable to stay in Avalon any longer, she leaves for the court of her aunt Morgause, queen of Lothian, where she bears her son, naming him Gwydion. Spurred by her husband Lot's ambition and her own, Morgause tricks Morgaine into allowing her to rear her son. To escape Lot's unwanted advances, Morgaine leaves Lothian and returns to Arthur's court as a lady-in-waiting to the high queen, Gwenhwyfar, she does not see Gwydion again. When Gwenhwyfar fails to produce an heir, she is convinced.
Chiefest among them, as she believes, are her failure to persuade Arthur to outlaw pagan religious practice in Britain and her forbidden love for Galahad, Arthur's cousin and finest knight, known as Lancelet. Although Lancelet reciprocates Gwenhwyfar's love, he is Arthur's friend and an honorable man; this situation causes terrible suffering to both Gwenhwyfar. On the eve of a decisive battle against the Saxons, Gwenhwyfar prevails upon Arthur to put aside his father's Pendragon banner and replace it with her own Christian banner; as her religious fanaticism grows, relations between Avalon and Camelot grow strained. Still, in her desperation over her failure to carry a child to term, she asks Morgaine for help, threatening to have an extramarital affair so she can become pregnant. In an attempt to keep Gwenhwyfar from doing so, Morgaine reveals that Arthur has a son, though he does not know it. After the battle, Arthur moves his court to Camelot, more defended than Caerleon had been. Seeking to free both Lancelet and Gwenhwyfar from the forbidden love that traps them both, Morgaine tricks Lancelet into marrying Gwenhwyfar's cousin, Elaine.
Some time during a heated argument with Arthur over their lack of an heir, Gwenhwyfar breaks Morgaine's confidence and tells Arthur he has a son. In growing suspicion and horror, Arthur summons Morgaine and order
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