King:
Louis Dieudonné
Prosper Léandre [
Louis III,
Roi des Merteuils] (31)
Queen:
Eleanora Bianca Maria Margherita [Éléonore de Sforzatta,
Reine des Merteuils] (26)
-DPrincess1:
Marguerite Éléonore
Johanna Thérèse [Princesse
Marguerite, Madame
Royale] (5)
-DPrince1:
Louis Dieudonné
Elio Alphonse [
Louis IV, le Grand Dauphin] (3)
-DPrincess2/DPrince2:
Victoire Clotilde Élisabeth
Melania /
Adrien Innocenzo Stéphane
Nicolas [Princesse
Victoire, Fille de Merteuil/Prince
Adrien, Fils de Merteuil]
The two years immediately following
Louis' birth seemed to be a major reflection of his joyous entry into the world: Merteuil was a prosperous and florishing kingdom, the envy of all those near it. People flocked to study at its universities and trade goods. Merteuil had even discovered new land far across the Aegific Ocean--named Louisterre, after the king--and the exotic crops and jewels that were imported were the envy of all. However, all of this seemed to come to a screaming halt when Aerienne, Merteuil's second largest city and a prosperous center of trade, was all but leveled in a devestating fire.
King Louis quickly took to action, accompanying his personal guard as well as the entire army of Merteuil to help with relief efforts.
Eleanora travelled with her husband, visiting the hospitals to console the wounded and personally creating and overseeing her own charity foundation to create temporary housing and almshouses for the displaced people of Aerienne, earning her the name "La
Reine Sainte Éléonore" (The Saint
Queen Eleanora). Rumors spread about the fire being arson; originating from anyone from a rival kingdom (most scandalously
Eleanora's own homeland of Sforzatta) to overly ambitious members of the
King's advisory coucil to his own brother.
King Louis creates a special investigatory council solely devoted to figuring out the cause of the fire, but after a year, nothing ever comes of it.
While the
King and
Queen are on a brief reprieve from their duties in Aerienne in order to catch up with affairs in their own royal city,
Eleanora becomes pregnant. Though she feels guilty for having to scale down her efforts in Aerienne, she is secretly glad to have the time to rest and spend more time with her own children, who, though they had been in the expert care of their governess, had missed their maman deeply. As the months pass,
Eleanora becomes violently ill and much larger than her first two pregnancies--the royal physician suspects twins, and confirms it during a routine examination when he clearly feels not one, but two babies growing inside
Eleanora. Now that the morning sickness has abated,
Eleanora feels huge and uncomfortable, but delighted that she is expecting two babies--she hopes for a boy and a girl, so both her children could have a same-gender sibling close in age.
However, in the middle of her sixth month,
Eleanora begins to feel extremely weak, with splitting headaches, blurred vision, and pain in her belly. She immediately knows something is wrong, and goes to the royal physician, who puts her on total bedrest. Her husband, wracked with worry, spends every free moment by his wife's side, often bringing
Marguerite and Petit
Louis to visit her.
Eleanora continues to do her queenly duties from her bedchambers, relying on her trusty ladies-in-waiting to ferry her messages to and from their recipients, and despite her condition seems to be in good spirits. Two and ahalf months later,
Eleanora goes into labor. After a long, strenuous, and draining birth, she does get her wish--the princess is born first, breech and blue, she is whisked away quickly so as not to distract the
Queen from birthing the other twin--a son. As the
Queen nurses her son in her arms, she looks worriedly over to her new daughter--she is much smaller than her brother and seems unlikely to survive. However, she is revived, and
Eleanora breathes a huge sigh of relief. She and
Louis name her new daughter Victoire--meaning victory--and her son
Adrien,
Eleanora's own special way of honoring her sister
Adelaide, to which
Louis grudgingly approves of. They choose Saint names as middle names for both
Victoire and
Adrien, partially because
Eleanora feels a bit apprehensive about naming her daughter so strongly when her condition is so touch-and-go.
However, as the months go on,
Victoire pulls through, though she is very tiny and prone to terrifying bouts of illness. The doctors say she will most likely be weak and sickly for the rest of her life, and
Eleanora makes sure to take special, personal care of her, even passing on stewardship of her Aerienne charity to a good friend of hers, the Comtesse de Coligny, in order to spend more time with her children, who
Eleanora frets will feel ignored.
Louis and
Eleanora first try to disguise
Victoire's delicate condition from the people of Merteuil, but eventually the public got wind of her real situation. The general opinion of the public (especially the Merteuil court) was that it was fortunate that the sickly child was
Victoire and not little
Prince Adrien, a thought that deeply offended
Eleanora. As a result of this, she became much more withdrawn, making less official appearances and in general retreating into herself, even speaking less to her husband, whom she was sure felt the same was as the court.
This message was edited 8/19/2010, 12:50 PM