Musings of an Exiled Dauphin - Musings of an Exiled Dauphin -7th Charles, Étude prologue-（英訳版・追放された王太子のひとりごと）（しんの（C.Clarté））

前のエピソード――Introduction & Preface

- My honored father.

The path you have taken has the smell of death in it.

What do you see as you turn your eyes away from reality?

- My dear mother.

You spew venom, and your color-crazed lover unleashes carnage.

Why did you give birth to me without knowing who you were dealing with?

People say that it is fortunate for the fifth prince to become The Dauphin (crown prince), but I was always depressed.

My siblings had died, my parents had abandoned me, and I was alone again.

What should I believe and what should I do in the future?

＊

A palace in Paris, the royal capital of France.

King Henry V of England was greeted by his bride, Princess Catherine, and her mother-in-law, Queen Isabeau de Baviere of France.

"What a beautiful princess!"

Henry sighed fervently, embraced Princess Catherine, and asked her to marry him.

“The princess's beauty is the very essence of this kingdom. I want all of her. That's why I'm here. I love the princess so much that I must have all of France for myself!”

The current King Charles VI of France is known as "Le Fou (Mad King)”.

The Dauphin Charles, who serves as the regent (deputy to the king), fled Paris two years ago when his life was threatened by the Duke of Burgundy, the queen's lover.

A year later, the Dauphin's aides murdered the Duke of Burgundy in retaliation, and the Queen, in order to take revenge and seize power, disinherited the Dauphin from the royal family as the son of her lover - in other words, as an illegitimate child instead of the King's child - and offered Princess Catherine and the crown to her enemy, England.

After a solemn marriage ceremony in the cathedral, Henry and Catherine staged a lavish wedding parade in the castle, but the public reaction was cold.

People called Queen Isabeau a "traitor" or a "lecherous queen" for selling her crown to England while the Dauphin was still alive.

Henry also looked down on his mother-in-law, Isabeau, who offered her daughter to flatter him.

She implied that he was not her husband's son in order to trap her son Charles.

That meant that the queen herself had admitted to adultery.

“Dirty whore...”

The royalty and nobility are forced to have political marriages, so they are relatively tolerant of love after marriage, but even so, conceiving a child other than your husband's is forbidden.

I wonder if Isabeau is aware that she is hurting the queen's own dignity as well as her son's by hating Charles so much.

For Henry, it was a gamble to make a deal with an untruthful person.

“But the succession to the throne of France has been his desire for a hundred years...”

He knew that he would be adding fuel to the fire.

But the succession to the French throne is a century-old wish.

Isabeau's viciousness and shallowness were convenient for Henry.

On the other hand, the people's cold gaze was also on Henry on horseback.

“Nonsense. Is the male lineage to the first King Clovis that important?”

Clovis was the first king of the Frankish Kingdom, the predecessor of the Kingdom of France, and the throne of France was traditionally supposed to be inherited by the male line of Clovis.

Henry of England was a descendant of the female line.

“Oh, Charles… if only he hadn't been born!”

All of the king's sons died suspiciously, except for his youngest brother Charles.

Charles, the current Dauphin, was the last in line and the only surviving heir to the throne. He is only 17 years old and has no wife or children.

“I have nothing against Charles himself, but he must die to ensure his succession to the throne.”

The wedding parade was just a sideshow.

Henry's main goal was to sign a treaty that would abolish the Dauphin.

“Regardless of whether Charles is alive or dead, the throne of France will now be mine. Hahaha… If you despise me for my female lineage, then despise me. I am the one who will be the King of France!”

Even if the king is out of his mind, treaties are agreements between countries.

It is not easy to overturn.

People whispered rumors as they were tossed about by the fires of war.

If things continue as they are, the usurpation of the throne will be accomplished and France will once again become a scorched earth.

If Henry of England takes up the sword, what will Charles, the Dauphin of France, take up?

＊

The Loire River, the largest river in France, is a strategic point separating the north and south, and there are many fortresses along the river.

The Dauphin settled in one of them, the Château de Chinon.

Time flies, and once again today the red sun is setting and the jet-black night sky is falling.

No matter where you are, no matter what time it is, this sky is the only thing that never changes.

When I was a child imprisoned in a monastery, I longed for my family with all my heart.

The first time she met her parents was ironically when she was brought back to the capital after the death of her older brothers, the princes.

"Father, Mother..."

The treasures that I had dreamed of so many times and had finally obtained were as fragile as glassware and were falling out of my hands. A place to stay, my immediate family, my irreplaceable friends, everything.

“How long will we continue to take from each other, hate each other, and shed blood?”

No matter how much I pray and scream, no voice comes back.

“What am I to fight against, what am I to believe in, what am I to love?”

My prayer was interrupted and I looked up at the night sky.

There were countless stardusts scattered above me, and I felt as if they were falling to earth.

The great God in the heavens is constantly bringing down trials to test the foolish, but his will is unfathomable, and I can only accept my fate.

"Then I ask the stars that light up the darkness. My beloved countrymen, the kingdoms that are heading for destruction, and all those who connect the past with the future… What should we nurture and what should we leave behind?”

I don't know what is right.

But history will tell us in the distant future.

The story of those of us who cursed our strange fate and still struggled to live.

◆Epilogue（あとがき）

The episode of Henry V's marriage proposal to Princess Catherine is referenced on the play "Henry V" by William Shakespeare.

It is a romantic story, but it is annoying to the original heir to the throne, the Dauphin Charles (Charles VII).

Incidentally, according to the history of England, the Anglo-French Hundred Years War is supposed to have ended here. Not yet, it's not over yet!

（※）The current British secondary school curriculum seems to say that it ended in 1453.

＊

ヘンリー五世がカトリーヌ王女に求婚するエピソードは、ウィリアム・シェイクスピアの戯曲『ヘンリー五世』を参考にしています。

ロマンチックな物語ですが、本来の王位継承者である王太子シャルル（シャルル七世）からすれば迷惑な話です。

なお、イングランド史観の歴史では英仏百年戦争はここで終わったことになっているらしい。まだだ、まだ終わらんよ！

（※）現在の英国の中等教育カリキュラムでは「1453年で一応終わった」としているようです。

◆P.S.（追記）

This short story is a prototype for the “7th Charles” series of novels.

Original text and titles of Japanese novels：追放された王太子のひとりごと　〜７番目のシャルル étude〜

URL：https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16816700427708759899

The Japanese version is participating in the "Kakuyomu Web Novel Short Story Award 2021".

If you like the English translation, please rate the Japanese version as well.

The serialized version is a long series of nearly 200 stories, with the juvenile version completed in the summer of 2021, and the adolescent version being serialized.

The full serialized version is available at the following URLs. Japanese version only.

▼【the juvenile version completed】7th Charles, born in a crazy kingdom

-The King of France, who won the Hundred Years' War, looks back on his boyhood-

・カクヨム：https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16816927859447599614

・アルファポリス：https://www.alphapolis.co.jp/novel/394554938/595255779

・小説家になろう：https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9199ey/

＊

この短編小説は、「７番目のシャルル」シリーズの原型となった習作です。

日本語小説の原文とタイトル：「追放された王太子のひとりごと　〜７番目のシャルル étude〜」

URL：https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16816700427708759899

日本語版は、「カクヨムWeb小説短編賞2021」に参加しています。

もし英訳版を気に入っていただけたなら、日本語版にも評価をお願いします。